96 Configuring and Maintaining Your Server
Scheduling Tasks
If you need to run scripts on your server at specific time, use the task scheduling facility on
your server to make the system automatically run the scripts for you.
Important: To prohibit control panel users from scheduling tasks on behalf of user "root",
create on the server's file system an empty file with name root.crontab.lock in the
location /plesk_installation_directory/var/.
During installation of Plesk the following tasks are automatically created:
autoreport.php – delivers daily, weekly and monthly reports on clients and domains (three
separate tasks)
backupmng – initiates scheduled backing up of domains once every 30 minutes
statistics – generates statistics on the limits imposed on domains, such as traffic, disk
usage, and so on
mysqldump.sh - creates a backup copy of three MySQL databases: psadump, MySQL,
and Horde databases
As all these tasks are related to domain statistics, databases and reports, it is strongly
recommended that you neither change nor remove these tasks.
Note. You can also schedule tasks on a per-domain basis. To do so, follow the same
procedures listed below, but instead of going to Server > Scheduled Tasks, go to Domains >
domain name > Scheduled Tasks.
To schedule a task:
1 Click the Server shortcut in the navigation pane.
2 Click the Scheduled Tasks icon in the Services group.
3 Select the system user account on whose behalf the task will be executed.
4 Click Add New Task.
5 Specify when to run your command:
Minute - enter the value from 0 to 59
Hour - enter the value from 0 to 23
Day of the Month - enter the value from 1 to 31
Month - enter the value from 1 to 12, or select the month from a drop-down box
Day of the Week - enter the value from 0 to 6 (0 for Sunday), or select the day of the
week from a drop-down box
You can schedule the time using the UNIX crontab entry format. In this format, you can
enter several values separated by commas. Two numbers separated by a hyphen
mean an inclusive range. For example, to run a task on the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 20th of a
month, type 4-6,20.
insert an asterisk to specify all values allowed for this field. For example, to run a task
daily, type * in the Day of the Month text box.
