At the meta user level, on the metaarray, users are allowed to run simple servers on an allocated port.

The elusive topic of users being able to allocate ports has come up several times on bboard and has yet to be documented. Here's official word from smj:

        TACKER:  smj (Stephen M. Jones)
        SUBJECT: .. SDF user port allocation
        DATE:    20-Apr-13 22:35:45
        HOST:    ol
        Its quite simple and should be add to the tutorials.  The port number is
        based on your numeric id.  You may run a simple server process on
        meta.sdf.org as long as it does not circumvent a membership (for instance,
        running your own webserver to host your own domain name bypassing the VHOST
        membership).  IRC bots are fine and servers of reasonable or less foot
        print.  For instance if you ran a nickserver or bot you'll likely be fine.
        If you run a minecraft server you'll probably get emails from other users
        asking you to stop hogging CPU and Memory.

Now that you know the policy, you might ask yourself, how do I get my numeric id? Which system provides the correct numeric id? Answer is simple, you run the ‘id’ command from any cluster server, and note your uid, this is your assigned port number.

Example:

       
  $ id
  uid=56395(user) gid=500(arpa) groups=500(arpa),600(MetaARPA),900(motd)
  $ id -u
  56395
  $

In the above example, note that the output of id shows that your user account is in the “MetaARPA” group, and lists the uid number. Running ‘id -u’ just shows the uid, which is the port number you would use, in this case “56395”. You are now ready to setup your server software.

Here are some servers you can run on your own port:

• Building a Basic Ruby on Rails Application
• NodeJs on MetaArray
• Java Jetty Server on MetaArray

Legacy link http://sdf.org?tutorials/port_allocation