New as of 0.23.0
cron:list <app> # List scheduled cron tasks for an app
cron:report [<app>] [<flag>] # Display report about an app
Dokku automates scheduled dokku run
commands via it's app.json
cron integration.
The app.json
file for a given app can define a special cron
key that contains a list of commands to run on given schedules. The following is a simple example app.json
that effectively runs the command dokku run $APP npm run send-email
once a day:
{
"cron": [
{
"command": "npm run send-email",
"schedule": "@daily"
}
]
}
A cron entry takes the following properties:
command
: A command to be run within the built app image. Specified commands can also be Procfile
entries.schedule
: A cron-compatible scheduling definition upon which to run the command. Seconds are generally not supported.Zero or more cron commands can be specified per app. Cron entries are validated after the build artifact is created but before the app is deployed, and the cron schedule is updated during the post-deploy phase.
When running scheduled cron tasks, there are a few items to be aware of:
PATH
and SHELL
environment variables are specified in the cron template.run
container, and thus inherit any docker-options specified for run
containers.Resources are never shared between scheduled tasks.--rm
flag, and are never executed in detached mode.docker-local
scheduler.docker-local
scheduler are written to a single crontab file owned by the dokku
user. The dokku
user's crontab should be considered reserved for this purpose.Cron tasks for an app can be listed via the cron:list
command. This command takes an app
argument.
dokku cron:list node-js-app
ID Schedule Command
cGhwPT09cGhwIHRlc3QucGhwPT09QGRhaWx5 @daily node index.js
cGhwPT09dHJ1ZT09PSogKiAqICogKg== * * * * * true
You can get a report about the cron configuration for apps using the cron:report
command:
dokku cron:report
=====> node-js-app cron information
Cron task count: 2
=====> python-sample cron information
Cron task count: 0
=====> ruby-sample cron information
Cron task count: 10
You can run the command for a specific app also.
dokku cron:report node-js-app
=====> node-js-app cron information
Cron task count: 2
You can pass flags which will output only the value of the specific information you want. For example:
dokku cron:report node-js-app --cron-task-count
Warning: Self-managed cron tasks should be considered advanced usage. While the instructions are available, users are highly encouraged to use the built-in scheduled cron task support unless absolutely necessary.
Some installations may require more fine-grained control over cron usage. The following are advanced instructions for configuring cron.
run
for cron tasksYou can always use a one-off container to run an app task:
dokku --rm run node-js-app some-command
dokku --rm-container run node-js-app some-command
For tasks that should not be interrupted, run is the preferred method of handling cron tasks, as the container will continue running even during a deploy or scaling event. The trade-off is that there will be an increase in memory usage if there are multiple concurrent tasks running.
enter
for cron tasksYour Procfile can have the following entry:
cron: sleep infinity
With the cron
process scaled to 1
:
dokku ps:scale node-js-app cron=1
You can now run all your commands in that container:
dokku enter node-js-app cron some-command
Note that you can also run multiple commands at the same time to reduce memory usage, though that may result in polluting the container environment.
For tasks that will properly resume, you should use the above method, as running tasks will be interrupted during deploys and scaling events, and subsequent commands will always run with the latest container. Note that if you scale the cron container down, this may interrupt proper running of the task.
Regularly scheduled tasks can be a bit of a pain with Dokku. The following are general recommendations to follow to help ensure successful task runs.
Use the dokku
user in your cron entry.
dokku
binary will attempt to execute with sudo
, and your cron run with fail with sudo: no tty present and no askpass program specified
.Add a MAILTO
environment variable to ship cron emails to yourself.
Add a PATH
environment variable or specify the full path to binaries on the host.
Add a SHELL
environment variable to specify Bash when running commands.
Keep your cron tasks in time-sorted order.
Keep your server time in UTC so you don't need to translate daylight savings time when reading the cronfile.
Run tasks at the lowest traffic times if possible.
Use cron to trigger jobs, not run them. Use a real queuing system such as rabbitmq to actually process jobs.
Try to keep tasks quiet so that mails only send on errors.
Do not silence standard error or standard out. If you silence the former, you will miss failures. Silencing the latter means you should actually make app changes to handle log levels.
Use a service such as Dead Man's Snitch to verify that cron tasks completed successfully.
Add lots of comments to your cronfile, including what a task is doing, so that you don't spend time deciphering the file later.
Place your cronfiles in a pattern such as /etc/cron.d/APP
.
Do not use non-ASCII characters in your cronfile names. cron is finicky.
Remember to have trailing newlines in your cronfile! cron is finicky.
The following is a sample cronfile that you can use for your apps:
# server cron jobs
MAILTO="mail@dokku.me"
PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin
SHELL=/bin/bash
# m h dom mon dow username command
# * * * * * dokku command to be executed
# - - - - -
# | | | | |
# | | | | +----- day of week (0 - 6) (Sunday=0)
# | | | +------- month (1 - 12)
# | | +--------- day of month (1 - 31)
# | +----------- hour (0 - 23)
# +----------- min (0 - 59)
### HIGH TRAFFIC TIME IS B/W 00:00 - 04:00 AND 14:00 - 23:59
### RUN YOUR TASKS FROM 04:00 - 14:00
### KEEP SORTED IN TIME ORDER
### PLACE ALL CRON TASKS BELOW
# removes unresponsive users from the subscriber list to decrease bounce rates
0 0 * * * dokku dokku --rm run node-js-app some-command
# sends out our email alerts to users
0 1 * * * dokku dokku ps:scale node-js-app cron=1 && dokku enter node-js-app cron some-other-command && dokku ps:scale node-js-app cron=0
### PLACE ALL CRON TASKS ABOVE, DO NOT REMOVE THE WHITESPACE AFTER THIS LINE