Cron expression examples and scheduling tips

A conventional five-field cron expression is minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week. The expression runs when every applicable field matches. Confirm the cron implementation you use, because some schedulers add a seconds field or use different rules.

0 * * * * runs at the beginning of every hour. 0 2 * * * runs daily at 02:00. 0 9 * * 1 runs at 09:00 every Monday. Use explicit examples in runbooks so the intended timezone is clear.

Avoid assuming that server time equals the business timezone. Daylight-saving changes can shift schedules unless the platform lets you set a timezone explicitly.

Use a non-destructive task and logging during rollout. Cron syntax can be valid while the command, working directory, permissions, or timezone is wrong.