Automating restarts and backups with schedules

Schedules let your server do things on its own — restart every night, take a backup while you sleep, or run a command at a set time. This guide gets you from zero to a working automatic restart.

Create a schedule

1. Open your server and click the Schedules tab.
2. Click Create Schedule.
3. Give it a name (for example Nightly restart).
4. Set when it runs using the cron fields — minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week. See the cheat sheet below.
5. Save the schedule, then add one or more tasks to it.

Add tasks

A schedule is a container; the tasks are what actually happen when it fires. Open your schedule and click Create Task. Task types include:

• Send power action — restart, stop, or start.
• Create backup — takes a backup automatically.
• Send command — runs a console command (for example say Restarting in 60s or save-all).

You can chain tasks with a delay between them — for example, send a warning command, wait 60 seconds, then restart.

Example: nightly restart at 4 AM with a warning

1. Create a schedule set to 0 4 * * * (every day at 04:00).
2. Task 1 — Send command: say Server restarting in 60 seconds.
3. Task 2 — Send command (with a 60-second delay): save-all.
4. Task 3 — Send power action: restart.

A daily restart clears memory leaks and keeps a busy server snappy.

Cron cheat sheet

The five fields are minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week.

* means "every". Times use the server's timezone shown on the schedule form.

Tips

• Pair a restart with a backup on separate schedules — restart daily, back up nightly.
• Warn players first. A say command a minute before a restart avoids surprise disconnects.
• Test it once by hitting Run Now on the schedule instead of waiting for the clock.