Scheduling

Automate your backups with cron-based scheduling.

Overview

DBackup uses standard cron expressions for scheduling. When a schedule is set, the job runs automatically at the specified times.

Cron Expression Format

┌───────────── minute (0-59)
│ ┌───────────── hour (0-23)
│ │ ┌───────────── day of month (1-31)
│ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1-12)
│ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of week (0-7, 0 and 7 = Sunday)
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * *

Common Schedules

Daily Backups

# Every day at 2:00 AM
0 2 * * *

# Every day at midnight
0 0 * * *

# Every day at 6:00 PM
0 18 * * *

Multiple Times Per Day

# Every 6 hours
0 */6 * * *

# Every 4 hours
0 */4 * * *

# Every hour
0 * * * *

# Twice a day (6 AM and 6 PM)
0 6,18 * * *

Weekly Backups

# Every Sunday at 3:00 AM
0 3 * * 0

# Every Saturday at midnight
0 0 * * 6

# Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 2:00 AM
0 2 * * 1,3,5

Monthly Backups

# First day of month at 4:00 AM
0 4 1 * *

# Last day of month at midnight (approximation)
0 0 28-31 * *

# 15th of every month
0 0 15 * *

Specific Schedules

# Weekdays at 1:00 AM
0 1 * * 1-5

# Weekends at 6:00 AM
0 6 * * 0,6

# Every 30 minutes during business hours
*/30 9-17 * * 1-5

Schedule Examples by Use Case

Production Database (Critical)

Multiple backups per day:

# Every 4 hours
0 */4 * * *

Combined with Smart retention for long-term keeping.

Development Database

Daily is usually sufficient:

# Daily at 3:00 AM
0 3 * * *

Large Database (Time-Sensitive)

Schedule during maintenance window:

# Sunday 2:00 AM (low traffic)
0 2 * * 0

Compliance (Financial)

End of business day:

# Weekdays at 11:00 PM
0 23 * * 1-5

Time Zone

DBackup uses the server's time zone. In Docker:

services:
  dbackup:
    environment:
      - TZ=Europe/Berlin

Common time zones:

• UTC - Coordinated Universal Time
• Europe/Berlin - Central European Time
• America/New_York - Eastern Time
• America/Los_Angeles - Pacific Time
• Asia/Tokyo - Japan Standard Time

Scheduler Behavior

Startup

When DBackup starts:

1. Loads all active jobs
2. Calculates next run times
3. Registers with scheduler

Execution

When scheduled time arrives:

1. Job is queued
2. Respects concurrency limit
3. Executes when slot available

Missed Schedules

If DBackup was down during scheduled time:

• Missed runs are not automatically triggered
• Next run occurs at next scheduled time
• Consider running manually after downtime

Best Practices

Stagger Schedules

Don't run all jobs at same time:

# Job 1: 2:00 AM
0 2 * * *

# Job 2: 2:30 AM
30 2 * * *

# Job 3: 3:00 AM
0 3 * * *

Off-Peak Hours

Run during low-traffic periods:

• Night time (1-5 AM)
• Weekends for large backups
• After business hours

Match Retention Policy

Align schedule with retention:

• Daily backups → Keep 7-30 daily
• Weekly backups → Keep 4-12 weekly
• Monthly backups → Keep 12-24 monthly

Consider Database Load

• Production: Multiple times per day
• Staging: Daily
• Development: Daily or weekly

Monitoring Schedules

View Next Run

In the Jobs list, see "Next Run" column showing when each job will execute.

Execution History

Check History to verify:

• Jobs ran at expected times
• No missed executions
• Duration is consistent

Notifications

Set up notifications to alert on:

• Failures (always recommended)
• Successful completions (optional)

Troubleshooting

Job Not Running on Schedule

1. Verify job is Enabled
2. Check cron expression syntax
3. Confirm time zone is correct
4. Check DBackup logs for errors
5. Verify scheduler is running

Runs at Wrong Time

1. Check server time zone
2. Set TZ environment variable
3. Restart DBackup after TZ change

Overlapping Executions

If backups overlap:

1. Increase time between schedules
2. Reduce backup duration (compression)
3. Increase max concurrent jobs

Cron Expression Generator

Use online tools to generate complex expressions:

• crontab.guru
• cronmaker.com

Examples

Enterprise Backup Strategy

# Hourly incremental (if supported)
0 * * * *

# Daily full backup at 2 AM
0 2 * * *

# Weekly full to archive at 3 AM Sunday
0 3 * * 0

# Monthly to cold storage
0 4 1 * *

Small Business

# Daily backup at 1 AM
0 1 * * *

# Weekly comprehensive at 2 AM Sunday
0 2 * * 0

Development Team

# Before daily standup (9 AM)
0 9 * * 1-5

# End of week archive
0 18 * * 5

Next Steps

• Retention Policies - Automatic cleanup
• Notifications - Get alerts
• Creating Jobs - Job configuration