Schedule trigger
editSchedule trigger
editSchedule triggers define when the watch execution should start based on date and time. All times are specified in UTC time.
Watcher uses the system clock to determine the current time. To ensure schedules are triggered when expected, you should synchronize the clocks of all nodes in the cluster using a time service such as NTP.
Keep in mind that the throttle period can affect when a watch is actually executed. The default throttle period is five seconds (5000 ms). If you configure a schedule that’s more frequent than the throttle period, the throttle period overrides the schedule. For example, if you set the throttle period to one minute (60000 ms) and set the schedule to every 10 seconds, the watch is executed no more than once per minute. For more information about throttling, see Acknowledgement and throttling.
Watcher provides several types of schedule triggers:
Hourly schedule
editA schedule
that triggers at a particular minute every
hour of the day. To use the hourly
schedule, you specify the minute (or minutes)
when you want the scheduler to start the watch execution with the minute
attribute.
If you don’t specify the minute
attribute for an hourly
schedule, it
defaults to 0
and the schedule triggers on the hour every hour--12:00
,
13:00
, 14:00
, and so on.
Configuring a once an hour schedule
editTo configure a once an hour schedule, you specify a single time with the minute
attribute.
For example, the following hourly
schedule triggers at minute 30 every hour--
12:30
, 13:30
, 14:30
, …:
{ "trigger" : { "schedule" : { "hourly" : { "minute" : 30 } } } }
Configuring a multiple times hourly schedule
editTo configure an hourly
schedule that triggers at multiple times during the
hour, you specify an array of minutes. For example, the following schedule
triggers every 15 minutes every hour--12:00
, 12:15
, 12:30
, 12:45
,
1:00
, 1:15
, …:
{ "trigger" : { "schedule" : { "hourly" : { "minute" : [ 0, 15, 30, 45 ] } } } }
Daily schedule
editA schedule
that triggers at a particular time
every day. To use the daily
schedule, you specify the time of day (or times)
when you want the scheduler to start the watch execution with the at
attribute.
Times are specified in the form HH:mm
on a 24-hour clock. You can also use the
reserved values midnight
and noon
for 00:00
and 12:00
, and
specify times using objects.
If you don’t specify the at
attribute for a daily
schedule, it defaults
to firing once daily at midnight, 00:00
.
Configuring a daily schedule
editTo configure a once a day schedule, you specify a single time with the at
attribute. For example, the following daily
schedule triggers once every
day at 5:00 PM:
{ "trigger" : { "schedule" : { "daily" : { "at" : "17:00" } } } }
Configuring a multiple times daily schedule
editTo configure a daily
schedule that triggers at multiple times during the day,
you specify an array of times. For example, the following daily
schedule
triggers at 00:00
, 12:00
, and 17:00
every day.
{ "trigger" : { "schedule" : { "daily" : { "at" : [ "midnight", "noon", "17:00" ] } } } }
Specifying times using objects
editIn addition to using the HH:mm
string syntax to specify times, you can specify
a time as an object that has hour
and minute
attributes.
For example, the following daily
schedule triggers once every day at 5:00 PM:
{ "trigger" : { "schedule" : { "daily" : { "at" { "hour" : 17, "minute" : 0 } } } } }
To specify multiple times using the object notation, you specify multiple hours
or minutes as an array. For example, following daily
schedule triggers at
00:00
, 00:30
, 12:00
, 12:30
, 17:00
and 17:30
every day:
{ "trigger" : { "schedule" : { "daily" : { "at" { "hour" : [ 0, 12, 17 ], "minute" : [0, 30] } } } } }
Weekly schedule
editA schedule
that triggers at a specific day and time
every week. To use the weekly
schedule, you specify the day and time (or days
and times) when you want the scheduler to start the watch execution with the on
and at
attributes.
You can specify the day of the week by name, abbreviation, or number (with Sunday being the first day of the week):
-
sunday
,monday
,tuesday
,wednesday
,thursday
,friday
andsaturday
-
sun
,mon
,tue
,wed
,thu
,fri
andsat
-
1
,2
,3
,4
,5
,6
and7
Times are specified in the form HH:mm
on a 24-hour clock. You can also use the
reserved values midnight
and noon
for 00:00
and 12:00
.
Configuring a weekly schedule
editTo configure a once a week schedule, you specify the day with the on
attribute
and the time with the at
attribute. For example, the following weekly
schedule
triggers once a week on Friday at 5:00 PM:
{ "trigger" : { "schedule" : { "weekly" : { "on" : "friday", "at" : "17:00" } } } }
You can also specify the day and time with the day
and time
attributes,
they are interchangeable with on
and at
.
Configuring a multiple times weekly schedule
editTo configure a weekly
schedule that triggers multiple times a week, you can
specify an array of day and time values. For example, the following weekly
schedule triggers every Tuesday at 12:00 PM and every Friday at 5:00 PM:
{ "trigger" : { "schedule" : { "weekly" : [ { "on" : "tuesday", "at" : "noon" }, { "on" : "friday", "at" : "17:00" } ] } } }
Alternatively, you can specify days and times in an object that has on
and
minute
attributes that contain an array of values. For example, the following
weekly
schedule triggers every Tuesday and Friday at 12:00 PM and 17:00 PM:
{ "trigger" : { "schedule" : { "weekly" : { "on" : [ "tuesday", "friday" ], "at" : [ "noon", "17:00" ] } } } }
Monthly schedule
editA schedule
that triggers at a specific day and time
every month. To use the monthly
schedule, you specify the day of the month and
time (or days and times) when you want the scheduler to start the watch execution
with the on
and at
attributes.
You specify the day of month as a numeric value between 1
and 31
(inclusive).
Times are specified in the form HH:mm
on a 24-hour clock. You can also use the
reserved values midnight
and noon
for 00:00
and 12:00
.
Configuring a monthly schedule
editTo configure a once a month schedule, you specify a single day and time with the
on
and at
attributes. For example, the following monthly
schedule triggers
on the 10th of each month at noon:
{ "trigger" : { "schedule" : { "monthly" : { "on" : 10, "at" : "noon" } } } }
You can also specify the day and time with the day
and time
attributes,
they are interchangeable with on
and at
.
Configuring a multiple times monthly schedule
editTo configure a monthly
schedule that triggers multiple times a month, you can
specify an array of day and time values. For example, the following monthly
schedule triggers at 12:00 PM on the 10th of each month and at 5:00 PM on the
20th of each month:
{ "trigger" : { "schedule" : { "monthly" : [ { "on" : 10, "at" : "noon" }, { "on" : 20, "at" : "17:00" } ] } } }
Alternatively, you can specify days and times in an object that has on
and at
attributes that contain an array of values. For example, the following monthly
schedule triggers at 12:00 AM and 12:00 PM on the 10th and 20th of each month.
{ "trigger" : { "schedule" : { "monthly" : { "on" : [ 10, 20 ], "at" : [ "midnight", "noon" ] } } } }
Yearly schedule
editA schedule
that triggers at a specific day and time
every year. To use the yearly
schedule, you specify the month, day, and time
(or months, days, and times) when you want the scheduler to start the watch
execution with the in
, on
, and at
attributes.
You can specify the month by name, abbreviation, or number:
-
january
,february
,march
,april
,may
,june
,july
,august
,september
,october
,november
anddecember
-
jan
,feb
,mar
,apr
,may
,jun
,jul
,aug
,sep
,oct
,nov
anddec
-
1
,2
,3
,4
,5
,6
,7
,8
,9
,10
,11
and12
You specify the day of month as a numeric value between 1
and 31
(inclusive).
The Times are specified in the form HH:mm
on a 24-hour clock. You can also use
the reserved values midnight
and noon
for 00:00
and 12:00
.
Configuring a yearly schedule
editTo configure a once a year schedule, you specify the month with the in
attribute,
the day with the on
attribute, and the time with the at
attribute. For
example, the following yearly
schedule triggers once a year at noon on January
10th:
{ "trigger" : { "schedule" : { "yearly" : { "in" : "january", "on" : 10, "at" : "noon" } } } }
You can also specify the month, day, and time with the month
, day
, and
time
attributes, they are interchangeable with in
, on
, and at
.
Configuring a multiple times yearly schedule
editTo configure a yearly
schedule that triggers multiple times a year, you can
specify an array of month, day, and time values. For example, the following
yearly
schedule triggers twice a year: at noon on January 10th, and at 5:00 PM
on July 20th.
{ "trigger" : { "schedule" : { "yearly" : [ { "in" : "january", "on" : 10, "at" : "noon" }, { "in" : "july", "on" : 20, "at" : "17:00" } ] } } }
Alternatively, you can specify the months, days, and times in an object that has
in
, on
, and minute
attributes that contain an array of values. For example,
the following yearly
schedule triggers at 12:00 AM and 12:00 PM on January 10th,
January 20th, December 10th, and December 20th.
{ "trigger" : { "schedule" : { "yearly" : { "in" : [ "jan", "dec" ], "on" : [ 10, 20 ], "at" : [ "midnight", "noon" ] } } } }
cron
schedule
editA schedule
trigger that enables you to use a
cron style expression to specify when you
want the scheduler to start the watch execution. Watcher uses the cron parser
from the Quartz Job Scheduler. For more
information about writing Quartz cron expressions, see the
Quartz CronTrigger Tutorial.
While cron
triggers are super powerful, we recommend using one of
the other schedule types if you can, as they are much more
straightforward to configure. If you use cron
, construct your cron
expressions with care to be sure you are actually setting the schedule
you want. You can use the elasticsearch-croneval
tool to validate
your cron expressions and see what the resulting trigger times will be.
Cron expressions
editA cron expression is a string of the following form:
<seconds> <minutes> <hours> <day_of_month> <month> <day_of_week> [year]
All elements are required except for year
. Table 92, “Cron expression elements” shows
the valid values for each element in a cron expression.
Table 92. Cron expression elements
Name | Required | Valid Values | Valid Special Characters |
---|---|---|---|
|
yes |
|
|
|
yes |
|
|
|
yes |
|
|
|
yes |
|
|
|
yes |
|
|
|
yes |
|
|
|
no |
empty or |
|
The special characters you can use in a cron expression are described in
Table 93, “Cron special characters”. The names of months and days of the week
are not case sensitive. For example, MON
and mon
are equivalent.
Currently, you must specify ?
for either the day_of_week
or
day_of_month
. Explicitly specifying both values is not supported.
Table 93. Cron special characters
Special Character | Description |
---|---|
* |
All values. Selects every possible value for a field. For
example, |
? |
No specific value. Use when you don’t care what the value
is. For example, if you want the schedule to trigger on a
particular day of the month, but don’t care what day of
the week that happens to be, you can specify |
- |
A range of values (inclusive). Use to separate a minimum
and maximum value. For example, if you want the schedule
to trigger every hour between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM, you
could specify |
, |
Multiple values. Use to separate multiple values for a
field. For example, if you want the schedule to trigger
every Tuesday and Thursday, you could specify |
/ |
Increment. Use to separate values when specifying a time
increment. The first value represents the starting point,
and the second value represents the interval. For example,
if you want the schedule to trigger every 20 minutes
starting at the top of the hour, you could specify |
L |
Last. Use in the |
W |
Weekday. Use to specify the weekday (Monday-Friday) nearest
the given day. As an example, if you specify |
# |
Nth XXX day in a month. Use in the |
Table 94. Setting daily triggers
Cron Expression | Description |
---|---|
|
Trigger at 9:05 AM every day. |
|
Trigger at 9:05 AM every day during the year 2015. |
Table 95. Restricting triggers to a range of days or times
Cron Expression | Description |
---|---|
|
Trigger at 9:05 AM Monday through Friday. |
|
Trigger every minute starting at 9:00 AM and ending at 9:05 AM every day. |
Table 96. Setting interval triggers
Cron Expression | Description |
---|---|
|
Trigger every 15 minutes starting at 9:00 AM and ending at 9:45 AM every day. |
|
Trigger at 9:05 AM every 3 days every month, starting on the first day of the month. |
Table 97. Setting schedules that trigger on a particular day
Cron Expression | Description |
---|---|
|
Trigger every April 1st at 4:01 AM. |
|
Trigger at 9:00 AM and at 9:30 AM every Wednesday in the month of April. |
|
Trigger at 9:05 AM on the 15th day of every month. |
|
Trigger at 9:05 AM on the nearest weekday to the 15th of every month. |
|
Trigger at 9:05 AM on the first Friday of every month. |
Table 98. Setting triggers using last
Cron Expression | Description |
---|---|
|
Trigger at 9:05 AM on the last day of every month. |
|
Trigger at 9:05 AM on the last Monday of every month |
|
Trigger at 9:05 AM on the last weekday of every month. |
Configuring a cron schedule
editTo configure a cron
schedule, you simply specify the cron expression as a
string value. For example, the following snippet configures a cron
schedule
that triggers every day at noon:
{ ... "trigger" : { "schedule" : { "cron" : "0 0 12 * * ?" } } ... }
Configuring a multiple times cron schedule
editTo configure a cron
schedule that triggers multiple times, you can
specify an array of cron expressions. For example, the following cron
schedule triggers every even minute during weekdays and every uneven
minute during the weekend:
{ ... "trigger" : { "schedule" : { "cron" : [ "0 0/2 * ? * MON-FRI"", "0 1-59/2 * ? * SAT-SUN" ] } } ... }
Verifying cron expressions
editThe Elasticsearch alerting features provide a
elasticsearch-croneval
command line tool
that you can use to verify that your cron expressions are valid and produce the
expected results. This tool is provided in the $ES_HOME/bin
directory.
To verify a cron expression, simply pass it in as a parameter to
elasticsearch-croneval
:
bin/elasticsearch-croneval "0 0/1 * * * ?"
If the cron expression is valid, elasticsearch-croneval
displays the next 10
times that the schedule will be triggered. You can specify the -c
option to
control how many future trigger times are displayed.
Interval schedule
editA schedule
that triggers at a fixed time interval. The
interval can be set in seconds, minutes, hours, days, or weeks:
-
"Xs"
- trigger everyX
seconds. For example,"30s"
means every 30 seconds. -
"Xm"
- trigger everyX
minutes. For example,"5m"
means every 5 minutes. -
"Xh"
- trigger everyX
hours. For example,"12h"
means every 12 hours. -
"Xd"
- trigger everyX
days. For example,"3d"
means every 3 days. -
"Xw"
- trigger everyX
weeks. For example,"2w"
means every 2 weeks.
If you don’t specify a time unit, it defaults to seconds.
The interval value differs from the standard time value used in Elasticsearch. You cannot configure intervals in milliseconds or nanoseconds.
Configuring an interval schedule
editTo configure an interval
schedule, you specify a string value that represents
the interval. If you omit the unit of time (s
,m
, h
, d
, or w
), it
defaults to seconds.
For example, the following interval
schedule triggers every five minutes:
{ "trigger" : { "schedule" : { "interval" : "5m" } } }