How do I schedule jobs in Jenkins?

Question

I added a new job in Jenkins, which I want to schedule periodically.

From Configure job, I am checking the "Build Periodically" checkbox and in the Schedule text field added the expression:

15 13 * * *

But it does not run at the scheduled time.

Is it the correct procedure to schedule a job?

The job should run at 4:20 AM, but it is not running.

Solution 1

By setting the schedule period to 15 13 * * * you tell Jenkins to schedule the build every day of every month of every year at the 15th minute of the 13th hour of the day.

Jenkins used a cron expression, and the different fields are:

1. MINUTES Minutes in one hour (0-59)
2. HOURS Hours in one day (0-23)
3. DAYMONTH Day in a month (1-31)
4. MONTH Month in a year (1-12)
5. DAYWEEK Day of the week (0-7) where 0 and 7 are sunday

If you want to schedule your build every 5 minutes, this will do the job : */5 * * * *

If you want to schedule your build every day at 8h00, this will do the job : 0 8 * * *

For the past few versions (2014), Jenkins have a new parameter, H (extract from the Jenkins code documentation):

To allow periodically scheduled tasks to produce even load on the system, the symbol H (for “hash”) should be used wherever possible.

For example, using 0 0 * * * for a dozen daily jobs will cause a large spike at midnight. In contrast, using H H * * * would still execute each job once a day, but not all at the same time, better using limited resources.

Note also that:

The H symbol can be thought of as a random value over a range, but it actually is a hash of the job name, not a random function, so that the value remains stable for any given project.

More example of using 'H'

Solution 2

The format is as follows:

MINUTE (0-59), HOUR (0-23), DAY (1-31), MONTH (1-12), DAY OF THE WEEK (0-6)

The letter H, representing the word Hash can be inserted instead of any of the values. It will calculate the parameter based on the hash code of you project name.

This is so that if you are building several projects on your build machine at the same time, let’s say midnight each day, they do not all start their build execution at the same time. Each project starts its execution at a different minute depending on its hash code.

You can also specify the value to be between numbers, i.e. H(0,30) will return the hash code of the project where the possible hashes are 0-30.

Examples:

1. Start build daily at 08:30 in the morning, Monday - Friday: 30 08 * * 1-5

2. Weekday daily build twice a day, at lunchtime 12:00 and midnight 00:00, Sunday to Thursday: 00 0,12 * * 0-4

3. Start build daily in the late afternoon between 4:00 p.m. - 4:59 p.m. or 16:00 -16:59 depending on the projects hash: H 16 * * 1-5

4. Start build at midnight: @midnight or start build at midnight, every Saturday: 59 23 * * 6

5. Every first of every month between 2:00 a.m. - 02:30 a.m.: H(0,30) 02 01 * *

Solution 3

Jenkins lets you set up multiple times, separated by line breaks.

If you need it to build daily at 7 am, along with every Sunday at 4 pm, the below works well.

H 7 * * *

H 16 * * 0

Solution 4

*/5 * * * * means every 5 minutes

5 * * * * means the 5th minute of every hour

Solution 5

The steps for schedule jobs in Jenkins:

1. click on "Configure" of the job requirement
2. scroll down to "Build Triggers" - subtitle
3. Click on the checkBox of Build periodically
4. Add time schedule in the Schedule field, for example: @midnight

Note: under the schedule field, can see the last and the next date-time run.

Jenkins also supports predefined aliases to schedule build:

@hourly, @daily, @weekly, @monthly, @midnight

@hourly --> Build every hour at the beginning of the hour --> 0 * * * *

@daily, @midnight --> Build every day at midnight --> 0 0 * * *

@weekly --> Build every week at midnight on Sunday morning --> 0 0 * * 0

@monthly --> Build every month at midnight of the first day of the month --> 0 0 1 * *

View more solutions

Comments

[Sangram Anand]

I want to run the job exactly @ 8:00 AM EST so the cron expression i constructed is - 00 08 * * * is that fine ?

[Sangram Anand]

Unfortunately its not working, attached the screen shot of it in the post, btw am testing it with the current EST time i.e., 4:20 AM something..

[fduff]

that EST time is the same timezone on the build server?

[Sangram Anand]

yes the time is same , btw the */5 * * * * (every 5mts) works well.

[ѕтƒ]

So how to build periodically after every 6hrs. Does * */6 * * * will work?

[Cédric Julien]

@ѕтƒ : yes, it will launch the build every 6 hours

[friederbluemle]

Spread load evenly by using ‘H/5 * * * *’ rather than ‘*/5 * * * *’

[AndyClaw]

If you want to limit the range of the H you can use H(1-3) for example to choose a number between 1 and 3. Example would be H H(1-3) * * * to run once between 1am and 3am

[ajeetdl]

Frustratingly, there seems to be something in my brain that simply cannot grasp these expressions without constantly having to refer back to docs.

[AKS]

To run job exactly at 8am EST, you have to do this way: H(0-0) 8 * * *

[AKS]

H(0-0) 6 * * 1 (for running at 6am ET on Monday), H(0-0) 16 * * 0 (At 4pm ET on Sunday). Running plain H 16 (won't run at 1600 / 4pm), you have to use H(0-0) 16 ....

[Helmut Granda]

@SkillM2 Don't forget the words from Albert Einstein - “Never memorize something that you can look up.”

[derHugo]

@ArunSangal instead of H(0-0) you can simply use 0 the advantage of using H is that not all Jobs will attempt to run at the same time exactly but rather try to get "the next available time-slot"

[ziggy]

What is the difference between DAYMONTH and DAYWEEK. How would both be used? For example, what does this mean? 01 23 * * 5

[Sergey Makhonin]

@ziggy this would mean that job will run at 23:01 of every month at friday. The difference is that a month has from 28 to 31 days, while a week has only 7, where 1 is Monday and 7 is Sunday. Note that 0 is also Sunday.

[Balaji Boggaram Ramanarayan]

how to apply these changes ?

[chrisinmtown]

at-midnight is pretty cool :) Jenkins seems to recognize quite a few special values starting @ including @daily. Can you post a link to the definitive list?

[Gavriel Cohen]

@chrisinmtown, predefined aliases list added, hopefully, it's helpful for you :)

[Stunner]

In the 4th example u r starting ur build on saturday night 11:59pm , that is 1 minute before the midnight :) just saying

[Gunjan Paul]

Thank you. this is very helpful to me to understand the * concept of Jenkins

[Johan Boulé]

Thanks for the explanation about H being related to a hash. I still think that's an unfortunate naming choice by the Jenkins authors though. In this context, they could have guessed that everyone would intuitively associate H with hour, and choose something else.

[ChandraSPola]

When you say 0 and 7 are sunday is that a Typo ? 0 being monday , 7 being sunday , is that what you mean ? @SergeyMakhonin . Thank you for clarifying . I read your comment after asking a question.

[Zvezda Bre]

I have to set schedule to execute every 2 days at 7 a.m. Can you help me with schedule code ?