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Cron job monitoring

Know when client-site scheduled jobs stop checking in

DownCTL watches expected job check-ins for client-site cron jobs, recurring scripts, and background automations, then alerts when a process misses its window.

No credit card required during the trial period.

Add cron monitor

Name the job, choose a cron expression or simple frequency, and set the grace window.

Name

Daily billing sync

Schedule type

Cron expression

Cron expression

0 6 * * *

Timezone

UTC

Grace time

10 minutes

Cron check-in dashboard

Daily billing sync

Healthy

Normal state

Recent pings arrived on time and the next check-in window is scheduled.

24h

100.000%

7d

99.980%

Open

0

Recent checks

last 18 runs

Missed check-in alert

Daily billing sync

Alert state

The billing sync missed its expected ping window.

Observed: No ping received

Status

Open

Notified

3

Since

12:43

Alert delivery

Email sent
Slack notified
Webhook delivered

What cron monitoring tracks

Cron monitoring watches expected check-ins for scheduled jobs, recurring scripts, automations, and background processes so recurring work is confirmed instead of assumed.

Expected check-ins

Missed pings

Cron status

Recent ping history

Recurring script and automation health

Failure alerts

Why it matters

Scheduled jobs and recurring background work often fail silently, which can break billing, imports, reports, and notifications long before anyone notices.

Cron failures are often silent

Background jobs can break billing, reports, imports, and notifications

Recurring scripts and automations need a lightweight way to prove they ran

Teams need alerts when jobs do not run on schedule

How it works in DownCTL

Cron job monitoring keeps invisible client-site maintenance work visible when scheduled tasks, recurring scripts, or automations miss their expected cadence.

  1. 1 Create a cron monitor
  2. 2 Add the generated ping URL to the scheduled job, script, or automation
  3. 3 DownCTL waits for expected check-ins
  4. 4 Alert when the process misses its window
FAQ

Common questions

What is cron job monitoring?

Cron job monitoring checks whether scheduled jobs report in when expected.

How do ping URLs work?

Your job, script, or automation pings a unique URL when it runs successfully, and DownCTL alerts if that ping is missing.

What happens if a cron job runs late?

If the job misses its expected window, DownCTL can mark it as failing and notify your team.

Can I monitor recurring scripts that are not cron jobs?

Yes. Any recurring process that can make an HTTP request can use the cron monitor ping URL.

Can cron failures alert Slack or PagerDuty?

Yes. Cron monitor alerts can use DownCTL notification channels.

Start monitoring with DownCTL

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