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  1. Home
  2. IT Analytics Help
  3. Section VI. Data Collector Installation and Troubleshooting
  4. CRON Expressions for Policy and Report Schedules
  5. CRON expressions for policy probe schedules

CRON expressions for policy probe schedules

Many Data Collector policy configurations require a schedule. Native CRON expressions are supported for fine-tuning a schedule. The CRON expression format for the policy configurations follows strings with five single space-separated time and date fields:

*

minutes

 

*

hours

 

*

day of month

 

*

month

 

*

day of the week

The following are the general guidelines when using special characters during the CRON expressions.

Table: Probe Schedule Allowed Values and Allowed Special Characters

Field

Allowed Values

minutes

0-59 (0 is "on the hour")

hours

0-23

day of month

1-31

month

1-12

day of week

0-6 (0 is Sunday)

  • IT Analytics supports a maximum of 80 characters in a CRON expression.

Special Characters:

  • A field may be an asterisk (*), which means the full range - i.e., "first" to "last". However, a * in the seconds and minutes position is not permitted, as this would excessively trigger the probe - every second or minute.

  • A forward slash (/) can be used to specify intervals.

  • Use a dash (-) to specify a range.

  • The CRON expression for the last day of the month, denoted by the letter L, is not supported.

Table: Probe Schedule field examples of string with five single space-separated time and date fields

Probe Schedule Examples

Scheduled Run Time

0 14-15 * * 1

On the hour, every Monday, between 2 and 3pm

Note:

A zero in the minutes position denotes the beginning of the hour.

30 9-13 * * 1-5

9:30, 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, and 13:30, Monday through Friday.

0 */2 * * *

To run the probe every 2 hours, put */2 in the hour position. This schedules the probe at 2am, 4am, 6am, 8am, 10am, 12pm, 2pm, and so on.

*/30 * * * *

Every 30 minutes

*/20 9-18 * * *

Every 20 minutes between 9 am and 6 pm

*/30 * * * 1-5

Every 30 minutes, Monday through Friday

1 2 * * *

2:01 every day

30 9,11 * * *

9:30 and 11:30 every day

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