How to schedule automatic restarts and commands on Schokr
Use schedules on Schokr to restart your server automatically, warn players first, run commands on a timer and create backups.
Updated · 2 min read
Schedules run tasks on a timer: restart the server every night, broadcast a message every hour, or run any console command at set times. You create them in your server's Schedules section.
How schedules work
A schedule has two parts:
- When it runs: set with cron-style fields for minute, hour, day of month, month and day of week.
- What it does: one or more tasks, run in order. A task can send a console command, perform a power action (start, stop, restart, kill) or create a backup. Each task can wait a number of seconds after the previous one.
Create a daily restart with warnings
- Open your server and go to the Schedules section.
- Create a new schedule and name it, for example "Daily restart".
- Set the timing. For 4:00 every day:
Minute: 0
Hour: 4
Day of month: *
Month: *
Day of week: *
- Save, then open the schedule to add tasks:
| Order | Task | Payload | Delay |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Send command | say Restarting in 5 minutes | 0 seconds |
| 2 | Send command | say Restarting in 1 minute | 240 seconds |
| 3 | Power action | Restart | 60 seconds |
- Make sure the schedule is enabled.
The say command is for Minecraft. Use whatever broadcast command your game supports, or skip the warnings for bots.
Check the next run time shown for the schedule to confirm it will run when you expect, since it may not match your local timezone.
Cron timing examples
| Goal | Minute | Hour | Day of month | Month | Day of week |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Every day at 04:00 | 0 | 4 | * | * | * |
| Every 6 hours | 0 | */6 | * | * | * |
| Every 30 minutes | */30 | * | * | * | * |
| Mondays at 03:30 | 30 | 3 | * | * | 1 |
| Twice a day (06:00, 18:00) | 0 | 6,18 | * | * | * |
* means every value, */6 means every sixth, and commas list specific values. Day of week starts at 0 for Sunday.
Other useful schedules
- Hourly announcements: send a command like
say Join our Discord!every hour. - Saving the world: on Minecraft,
save-allbefore a backup task. - Restarting a bot daily: a single restart task helps long-running bots that slowly use more memory.
Why restart regularly?
Many game servers slowly use more memory over days of uptime, especially with plugins or mods. A daily restart in a quiet hour keeps performance steady and helps prevent out of memory crashes. Schokr servers do not sleep, so without a restart they can run for a very long time.
Troubleshooting
- Schedule did not run: check that it is enabled and that the time fields are what you meant. Remember
*in the minute field means every minute. - Commands did nothing: commands only work if the server is running, and they must be valid for your software.
- Restart left the server offline: check the console for a startup error.
Permissions
Creating and editing schedules is a team permission. See team roles and permissions.