Regions
Last updated 02 August 2016
Table of Contents
Heroku applications can be deployed in several different geographic locations. The available locations for an application depend on whether the application is deployed to a Common Runtime or to a Private Space.
For apps in the Common Runtime, you specify a region when you create the app. For apps in Private Spaces, the region is set when you create the Private Space. Each Private Space exists in a single geographic location and all applications in the Private Space run in that location.
View the list of available regions
To view the list of available regions, use this CLI command:
$ heroku regions ID Location Runtime ───────── ─────────────────────── ────────────── eu Europe Common Runtime us United States Common Runtime frankfurt Frankfurt, Germany Private Spaces oregon Oregon, United States Private Spaces tokyo Tokyo, Japan Private Spaces virginia Virginia, United States Private Spaces
To filter the list of available regions by common runtime or private spaces, use:
$ heroku regions --common ID Location Runtime ── ───────────── ────────────── eu Europe Common Runtime us United States Common Runtime $ heroku regions --private ID Location Runtime ───────── ─────────────────────── ────────────── frankfurt Frankfurt, Germany Private Spaces oregon Oregon, United States Private Spaces tokyo Tokyo, Japan Private Spaces virginia Virginia, United States Private Spaces
Heroku exposes more detailed information about each of these regions in the Platform API. For example, if you need to know which infrastructure provider is used for the Frankfurt region, you can make a direct API query:
$ curl -n -X GET https://api.heroku.com/regions/frankfurt -H "Accept: application/vnd.heroku+json; version=3" { "country":"Germany", "created_at":"2015-08-20T01:37:59Z", "description":"Frankfurt, Germany", "id":"37095377-0fed-41e5-b2db-778818d362aa", "locale":"Frankfurt", "name":"frankfurt", "private_capable":true, "provider":{ "name":"amazon-web-services", "region":"eu-central-1" }, "updated_at":"2015-08-20T01:37:59Z" }
The result indicates that the Frankfurt region maps to Amazon Web Services eu-central-1 region.
Default regions
Unless a different region is specified, apps in the Common Runtime will be created in the us region.
If you create a Private Space without specifying a region it will be created in the virginia region.
Specify a region
When creating the app in the Common Runtime, to specify a particular region, use the --region flag :
$ heroku create --region eu Creating calm-ocean-1234... done, region is eu http://calm-ocean-1234.herokuapp.com/ | git@heroku.com:calm-ocean-1234.git Git remote heroku added
If you are using Private Spaces, the region is set when the Private Space is created. All apps created in a Private Space will run in the region where the space was created. For more information, see the Private Spaces article.
Verify an app’s region
To verify an app’s region, check the Region attribute of the heroku info command:
$ heroku info === calm-ocean-1234 Git URL: git@heroku.com:calm-ocean-1234.git Owner Email: user@test.com Region: eu Repo Size: 164M ...
Migrating existing apps
Existing applications can be migrated to a different region.
If you are using Private Spaces, see the Migrate Apps section of the Private Spaces article.
Add-ons and region support
Add-ons with region support will be provisioned in the same region as the app. Provision them as you normally would:
$ heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql
Add-ons that don’t require a low-latency connection to your app will be provisioned in the default region if unavailable in your app’s region. If an add-on is latency sensitive and is not available in the same region as your app, provisioning will fail:
$ heroku addons:create cloudcounter Adding cloudcounter on calm-ocean-1234... failed ! This app is in region eu, cloudcounter:basic is only available in region us.
You can find add-ons supporting your app’s region using either the CLI or the web interface. To find add-ons supported in the eu region using the CLI, run this command:
$ heroku addons:services --region=eu
On the Elements Marketplace you can use the search box to find add-ons that support the eu region by searching for “europe”. You can narrow your search further, for example to Redis add-ons that support the eu region by searching for “Redis europe”.
Deployment
Deployment does not have any impact on region. The region was determined when you created the app (or, if you are using Private Spaces, when you created the Private Space containing the app). All subsequent deploys to the app will happen in the specified region.
One-off dynos
One-off dynos are run in the region of the app. This is also true of secondary services such as Heroku Scheduler that provision one-off dynos to execute jobs.
Custom domains
Custom domain configuration is agnostic to region. Use the heroku domains commands to manage custom domains.
SSL
SSL works slightly differently depending on where apps are deployed. Consult the SSL Endpoint documentation for more details.
Data residency
Although each supported region represents a geographically isolated platform runtime, no assumptions should be made about the physical residency of your application data.
Consider the following cases where data is stored in a different location than your app:
- Some non-latency sensitive add-ons can be provisioned in a different region than your app.
- Application logs are routed to Logplex, which is hosted in the US.
- PG Backup snapshots are stored in the US.
- Postgres Continuous Protection for disaster recovery stores the base backup and write-ahead logs in the same region that the database is located.
- Logging of queries and errors can be blocked by using the
--block-logsflag for Heroku Postgres at provision time. Information around queries will not be put into the logs. This will reduce Heroku’s ability to assist in debugging problems with Heroku Postgres. - Dataclips are stored in the US.
- No guarantees are made about the physical location of Heroku’s control surface APIs through which all CLI commands and the management of your applications occur.