Cron Expression

A cron expression defines a schedule for running a scaling task at specific times.

This guide describes the Unix cron format (the standard 5-field syntax) with minute-level granularity. The schedule triggers when all fields match the current time. Cron schedules are evaluated in the timezone you selected.

Expression format and field values

A cron expression has five time and date fields separated by a blank.

* * * * *
│ │ │ │ └── day of week
│ │ │ └──── month
│ │ └────── day of month
│ └──────── hour
└────────── minute

Field	Valid Value Range	Notes
minute	[0 - 59]	--
hour	[0 - 23]	24-hour clock. If the hour field of a CRON expression has a value of 17, the field matches any time between 5:00 PM and 5:59 PM.
day of month	[1 - 31]	Not all months have 31 days. If you schedule 31 in a month that has fewer days, the scheduled scaling task will not run in that month.
month	[1 -12]	--
day of week	[0 - 6]	0 represents Sunday, 1 represents Monday, 2 represents Tuesday, and so on.

Special characters and operators

These operators can be used in most fields:

Operator	Meaning	Example
*	any value	* * * * * runs every minute.
,	list of values	0 9,17 * * * runs at 09:00 and 17:00 every day.
-	range of values	0 9-17 * * * runs hourly from 09:00 through 17:00.
/	step values (every N units) Notes: You can also combine ranges with steps.	*/5 * * * * runs every 5 minutes. 10-50/10 * * * * runs at minutes 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 of every hour.

Examples

This section provides some simple templates that you can directly use. If your suitable requires complex expressions that uses combination of operators, please refer to the examples here.

Simple templates

Use case	Cron expression	Meaning
Every minute	* * * * *	Runs every minute
Every 5 minutes	*/5 * * * *	Runs every 5 minutes
Every hour	0 * * * *	Runs at the start of every hour
Daily at 09:30	30 9 * * *	Runs at 09:30 every day
Weekdays at 09:00	0 9 * * 1-5	Runs 09:00 Mon–Fri
Monthly on the 1st at 09:00	0 9 1 * *	Runs at 09:00 on the 1st of every month
Every Sunday at 09:00	0 9 * * 0	Runs 09:00 every Sunday
Twice daily	0 9,21 * * *	Runs at 09:00 and 21:00 daily

Common scenarios

The following examples show how to write Unix cron expressions for scheduled scaling tasks based on typical workload patterns.

Example 1: Scale up during weekday peak hours, then scale down during weekday off-peak

To do this, create two schedules—one for peak hours and one for off-peak hours.

• Peak hours: * 9-18 * * 1-5 Runs every minute from 09:00 to 18:59, Monday to Friday.

• Off-peak: * 0-8,19-23 * * 1-5 Runs every minute from 00:00 to 08:59 and 19:00 to 23:59, Monday to Friday.

Example 2: Weekend low-cost mode + Monday restore

To do this, create two schedules—one for the weekend and one to restore on Monday.

• Weekend: * * * * 0,6 Runs every minute on Saturday and Sunday.

• Monday restore: 0 9 * * 1 Runs at 09:00 every Monday.