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Schedule Examples

This document provides examples of common scheduling scenarios and their corresponding cron expressions.

Daily Schedules

Daily at Midnight

  • Cron: 0 0 * * *
  • Use Case: Daily system maintenance, log rotation, backup operations

Daily at 9 AM

  • Cron: 0 9 * * *
  • Use Case: Start of business day operations, morning system checks

Daily at 6 PM

  • Cron: 0 18 * * *
  • Use Case: End of business day operations, evening maintenance

Weekly Schedules

Every Monday at 8 AM

  • Cron: 0 8 * * 1
  • Use Case: Weekly system maintenance, Monday morning startup procedures

Weekdays Only (Monday-Friday) at 9 AM

  • Cron: 0 9 * * 1-5
  • Use Case: Business hours operations, weekday-only processes

Weekends Only (Saturday-Sunday) at 10 AM

  • Cron: 0 10 * * 6,0
  • Use Case: Weekend maintenance, non-critical operations

Monthly Schedules

First Day of Each Month at Midnight

  • Cron: 0 0 1 * *
  • Use Case: Monthly reports, billing cycles, monthly maintenance

Last Day of Each Month at 11 PM

  • Cron: 0 23 31 * *
  • Use Case: End-of-month processing, monthly backups

Hourly and Sub-hourly Schedules

Every Hour on the Hour

  • Cron: 0 * * * *
  • Use Case: Regular system checks, hourly monitoring

Every 30 Minutes

  • Cron: */30 * * * *
  • Use Case: Frequent monitoring, real-time operations

Every 15 Minutes

  • Cron: */15 * * * *
  • Use Case: High-frequency monitoring, near real-time operations

Every 5 Minutes

  • Cron: */5 * * * *
  • Use Case: Very frequent checks, critical monitoring

Specific Time Schedules

Every Day at 2:30 AM

  • Cron: 30 2 * * *
  • Use Case: Off-peak maintenance, backup operations

Every Tuesday and Thursday at 3 PM

  • Cron: 0 15 * * 2,4
  • Use Case: Bi-weekly meetings, regular maintenance windows

First and 15th of Each Month at 1 PM

  • Cron: 0 13 1,15 * *
  • Use Case: Semi-monthly processes, payroll operations

Complex Examples

Business Hours Monitoring (8 AM - 6 PM, Weekdays)

  • Cron: 0 8-18 * * 1-5
  • Use Case: Active business monitoring, customer-facing operations

Weekend Maintenance Window (Saturday 2 AM - 4 AM)

  • Cron: 0 2-4 * * 6
  • Use Case: Extended maintenance windows, system updates

Quarterly Operations (First day of each quarter)

  • Cron: 0 0 1 1,4,7,10 *
  • Use Case: Quarterly reports, seasonal operations

Skip Functionality Examples

Skip Next 3 Executions

  • Use Case: Temporary maintenance window, testing period
  • Skip Value: 3

Skip Next 24 Hours (for hourly schedule)

  • Use Case: System maintenance, planned downtime
  • Skip Value: 24

Skip Next Week (for daily schedule)

  • Use Case: Vacation period, extended maintenance
  • Skip Value: 7

Real-World Scenarios

Office Building Security

  • Morning Activation: 0 6 * * 1-5 (Weekdays at 6 AM)
  • Evening Deactivation: 0 18 * * 1-5 (Weekdays at 6 PM)
  • Weekend Mode: 0 8 * * 6,0 (Weekends at 8 AM)

Retail Store Operations

  • Store Opening: 0 9 * * 1-6 (Mon-Sat at 9 AM)
  • Store Closing: 0 21 * * 1-6 (Mon-Sat at 9 PM)
  • Sunday Special: 0 11 * * 0 (Sunday at 11 AM)

Manufacturing Plant

  • Shift Start: 0 6,14,22 * * 1-5 (Three shifts, weekdays)
  • Lunch Break: 0 12,20 * * 1-5 (Lunch breaks for day and evening shifts)
  • Weekend Maintenance: 0 8 * * 6 (Saturday maintenance)

Data Center Operations

  • Daily Backup: 0 2 * * * (Daily at 2 AM)
  • Weekly Maintenance: 0 4 * * 0 (Sunday at 4 AM)
  • Monthly Reports: 0 1 1 * * (First of month at 1 AM)

Tips for Creating Schedules

  1. Test your cron expressions using online cron validators before implementing
  2. Consider time zones - all times are in the server's local timezone
  3. Use skip functionality for temporary changes rather than deleting schedules
  4. Group related operations into single schedules when possible
  5. Document your schedules with clear names and descriptions
  6. Monitor schedule execution through the recent actions log
  7. Plan for daylight saving time if your operations are time-sensitive

Event-Only Schedules (NX Generic Event)

Some schedules intentionally have no rule group or timer targets. On each cron run (or when you click Apply Now), Nx-PowerToys still dispatches a generic event into NX Witness so you can trigger custom actions in the NX Rules Engine.

When to use event-only schedules

  • You want NX rules (notifications, HTTP actions, device I/O, etc.) driven by a cron time without enabling a Nx-PowerToys rule group
  • You need a schedule hook that other NX rules can react to, separate from profile/timer automation inside Nx-PowerToys

Generic event identity

Each schedule gets a stable notification source derived from its schedule ID:

Field Value
Source _nxpt_generic_event_{scheduleId}
Caption schedule
Description (on fire) execute

Example: schedule night_patrol → Source _nxpt_generic_event_night_patrol.

Nx-PowerToys auto-creates/updates the matching NX notification rule when you save the schedule. You do not need to create that source manually.

Operator workflow

  1. Create the schedule in Nx-PowerToys (Schedules → New Schedule). Leave all target checkboxes unchecked for event-only, or select rule groups/timers if you also want Nx-PowerToys to apply those targets.
  2. Create an NX event rule in NX Witness (Rules Engine) whose event condition matches the fields above — typically Source contains _nxpt_generic_event_ and Description is execute (tighten with Caption schedule and the exact source for one schedule).
  3. Test with Apply Now on the schedule list, then confirm the rule fires and check Schedule Status → Recent Actions (action NX Generic Event).

UI indicators

  • List view shows an NX Event Only badge when a schedule has zero persisted targets
  • New/edit forms explain that targets are optional and show an info alert when no checkboxes are selected