Scheduled Tasks

Scheduled Tasks let you run patches, custom scripts, service actions, and software inventory scans on a recurring cadence. A schedule fires on a cron expression and inserts a task run that flows through the same execution path as ad-hoc tasks.

Creating a schedule

1. Navigate to Scheduled Tasks in the sidebar
2. Click New schedule
3. Fill in the form:
   • Name — human-readable label shown in the list
   • Task type — patch, custom_script, service, or software_inventory (task type is fixed after creation)
   • Task-specific config — patch mode, script + interpreter, service name + action, etc.
   • Target — a single host or a host group
   • Max parallel hosts — only applies to group targets (0 = unlimited)
   • Cron expression — 5-field standard cron (minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week)
   • Timezone — IANA timezone the cron expression is evaluated in (default UTC)
   • Enabled — disabled schedules never fire
4. The form shows the next 5 scheduled run times so you can verify the cron before saving

Cron syntax

Standard 5-field cron (POSIX-style) is supported. Examples:

Seconds and non-standard extensions are not supported. The lowest granularity is one minute.

Timezone behaviour

The cron expression is evaluated against the schedule's timezone field. 0 2 * * * with Europe/London fires at 02:00 local UK time — so it tracks DST transitions automatically.

The sweeper in the ingest service runs every 30 seconds, so a schedule can fire up to 30 seconds late.

Target resolution & skip rules

When a schedule fires:

• Single host target — the host must still exist and not be soft-deleted
• Group target — all non-deleted member hosts are targeted
• Patch and service tasks — non-Linux hosts are filtered out (Linux-only)
• Custom script and software inventory — all OSes are eligible

If no eligible hosts remain (target deleted, empty group, all non-Linux for a Linux-only task), the sweeper advances next_run_at and logs a warning — no task run is created.

If the cron expression becomes unparseable (manual DB edit), the sweeper disables the schedule to prevent it from spinning.

Running a schedule immediately

From the Scheduled Tasks list, click the Play icon next to a schedule to trigger a one-off run without affecting the recurring cadence. This dispatches the same task via the normal trigger helpers and navigates straight to the task run monitor.

Permissions

Schedules are scoped to the creator's organisation; read access requires no additional permission beyond a dashboard session.

Viewing runs triggered by a schedule

Open a schedule's detail page to see its 20 most recent runs, each linking through to the full task run monitor. On the Scheduled Tasks list, the Last run column also links to the most recent run directly.

Troubleshooting

• Schedule didn't fire — verify Enabled is on and the next run time is in the past. Check ingest logs for schedule sweeper: lines.
• "no eligible hosts" — the target host was deleted, the group is empty, or all member hosts are non-Linux for a Linux-only task.
• Schedule auto-disabled — the cron expression failed to parse on the server; edit to fix, then re-enable.