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NetBackup IT Analytics Data Collector Installation and Configuration Guide for Veritas NetBackup

Last Published: 2025-03-04

Product(s): NetBackup IT Analytics (11.5)

CRON expressions for policy probe schedules

Many Data Collector policy configurations require a schedule. Native CRON expressions are supported for fine-tuning a schedule. The CRON expression format for the policy configurations follows strings with five single space-separated time and date fields:

minutes

hours

day of month

month

day of the week

The following are the general guidelines when using special characters during the CRON expressions.

Table: Probe Schedule Allowed Values and Allowed Special Characters

Field	Allowed Values
minutes	0-59 (0 is "on the hour")
hours	0-23
day of month	1-31
month	1-12
day of week	0-6 (0 is Sunday)
NetBackup IT Analytics supports a maximum of 80 characters in a CRON expression.
Special Characters:
A field may be an asterisk (), which means the full range - i.e., "first" to "last". However, a in the seconds and minutes position is not permitted, as this would excessively trigger the probe - every second or minute.
A forward slash (/) can be used to specify intervals.
Use a dash (-) to specify a range.
The CRON expression for the last day of the month, denoted by the letter L, is not supported.

Table: Probe Schedule field examples of string with five single space-separated time and date fields

Probe Schedule Examples	Scheduled Run Time
0 14-15 * * 1	On the hour, every Monday, between 2 and 3pm Note: A zero in the minutes position denotes the beginning of the hour.
30 9-13 * * 1-5	9:30, 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, and 13:30, Monday through Friday.
0 /2 * *	To run the probe every 2 hours, put */2 in the hour position. This schedules the probe at 2am, 4am, 6am, 8am, 10am, 12pm, 2pm, and so on.
/30 * * *	Every 30 minutes
/20 9-18 * *	Every 20 minutes between 9 am and 6 pm
/30 * * 1-5	Every 30 minutes, Monday through Friday
1 2 * * *	2:01 every day
30 9,11 * * *	9:30 and 11:30 every day