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. You rarely have to write one yourself: the schedule picker builds it.

Picking a Schedule

The job form and the schedule preset dialog use the same picker. Choose how often a job runs:

Choice	What you set	Written as
Hourly	Every 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 or 12 hours, at a minute past the hour	15 */6 * * *
Daily	One or more times a day, a second one with Add time	0 3,15 * * *
Weekly	The days, with Weekdays and Weekend as shortcuts, and the times	30 22 * * 1-5
Monthly	A day from 1 to 31 or Last day, and the times	0 4 L * *
Cron	Any cron expression, for everything else	*/30 9-17 * * 1-5

Times are typed like 03:00 and are those of the scheduler time zone. All times of one schedule share their minute, because a cron expression has a single minute field for all of them. Under the picker the schedule is said in words, with the time zone and the next three runs. A cron expression the scheduler cannot read is marked at once and cannot be saved.

When Runs Would Wait

The queue runs as many jobs at once as Max Concurrent Jobs in Settings - General allows. When the slots are taken at the time a job starts, the picker shows a small warning with the jobs ahead of it in the queue and about how long it waits for them, together with a nearby time that has room, like Use 03:15. The queue runs one job after the other, so with one slot a job waits until every job ahead of it is done: two jobs of 5 and 8 minutes make it wait 13 minutes. As long as the slots are enough nothing is shown, so three jobs at 03:00 are fine with three slots.

How long a job usually takes comes from its recent runs, the same estimate the timeline of the next hours on the Overview uses. For a schedule preset the warning also counts the jobs that follow it, since they all start together.

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
0 0 L * *

# 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 interprets all cron expressions in the Time zone configured in Settings - General. For example, 0 3 * * * means "3:00 AM in the configured scheduler timezone."

To change the scheduler timezone:

1. Open Settings in the sidebar.
2. Open General.
3. Pick your zone under Time zone and click Save changes.

The schedule picker shows its times in the scheduler timezone and names it beside the schedule in words, so you know exactly when a job will fire.

For a full explanation of all timezone settings (scheduler timezone, per-user display timezone, and the optional TZ environment variable), see the Timezones guide.

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, the schedule picker warns about overlaps and suggests a free time
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