Scheduling with systemd - Paiet/Tech-Journal-for-Everything GitHub Wiki

• systemd timers vs cron jobs
  • Mostly a drop-in replacement
  • systemd has a slightly more flexible time format
  • Dependency tracking
  • Logs to journald
• Creating systemd timers
  1. Create a service that depends on the timer
  2. Create the timer
  3. Monitor the journal to validate execution

/etc/systemd/system/backup.service

[Unit]
Description=Perform a backup
Wants=backup.timer

[Service]
Type=oneshot
WorkingDirectory=/home/nicholas/
ExecStart=/home/nicholas/backup.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

/etc/systemd/system/backup.timer

[Unit]
Description=Schedules backups
Requires=backup.service

[Timer]
Unit=backup.service
OnCalendar=*-*-* *:*:00

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

• systemd timer format
  • man 7 systemd.time -> Calendar Events
• Troubleshooting timers
  • Look for errors
    • journalctl -u backup.service
  • Check your syntax
  • Check your service
    • systemd-run /home/nicholas/backup.sh