AutomationAlso called: "scheduled task", "cron schedule"
Cron jobs automate repetitive tasks like backups, reports, and maintenance.
Components
- Cron expression: Defines when to run (minute, hour, day, month, weekday).
- Command/script: What to execute.
- User context: Which user runs the job.
- Output: Where logs/errors go (email, file).
Common uses
- Database backups (daily at midnight).
- Log rotation (weekly cleanup).
- Report generation (monthly summaries).
- Health checks (every 5 minutes).
- Certificate renewal (automated Let's Encrypt).
Best practices
- Log all job output for debugging.
- Use absolute paths in scripts.
- Set appropriate timeouts.
- Handle failures gracefully.
- Test in non-production first.
- Document what each job does.
Alternatives
- Systemd timers (Linux).
- Task Scheduler (Windows).
- Cloud schedulers (AWS EventBridge, Cloud Scheduler).