How do I schedule jobs in Jenkins?

330
votes

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?

Enter image description here

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

9
jenkinscron
It does run or it does NOT run? Your cron says "Every Day at 13:15" if I remember correctly. And yes: I consider this the correct way to schedule periodic builds. – Fildor
Maybe this will help you: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cron#CRON_expression - I see Cedric already linked it ... Maybe you should tell us, what the intended period is? – Fildor
For reference, the blue question mark on the RHS reveals a good explanation of the possible values – devstopfix
Here is a good webpage to autogenerate --> crontab-generator.org – Fabián Carrasco

9 Answers

581
votes

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'

44
votes

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 * *

42
votes

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
30
votes

*/5 * * * * means every 5 minutes

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

23
votes

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

enter image description here

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 * *

8
votes

To schedule a cron job every 5 minutes, you need to define the cron settings like this:

*/5 * * * *
4
votes

Try this.

20 4 * * *

Check the below Screenshot

enter image description here

Referred URL - https://www.lenar.io/jenkins-schedule-build-periodically/

3
votes

Try using 0 8 * * *. It should work

3
votes

Jenkins uses Cron format on scheduling. You can refer this link for more detailhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cron. One more thing, Jenkins provide us a very useful preview. Please take a look on the screenshot. enter image description here

I hope this help. Thanks