# 🕒 Scheduling Tasks with Cron

Need to restart your server every night? Want to automate backups or broadcast messages to players? The Schedule feature on Expanse Panel lets you automate tasks using cron-like syntax.

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# 📍 Where to Find It

1. Log in to your Expanse Panel
2. Select your server
3. Go to the Schedules tab from the top navigation
4. Click Create Schedule

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# 🧱 Creating a New Scheduled Task

# Step-by-Step:

1. Name your schedule – something like Daily Restart
2. Set your preferred cron time (more below)
3. Enable the schedule
4. Under Tasks, click New Task
   • Choose an action: Send Command, Restart Server, or Backup Server
   • For Send Command, type your command (e.g., say Server restarting in 5 minutes!)
5. Add more tasks if needed (they’ll run in order)

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# 🧠 Cron Time Format

Here’s the format:
minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week

For quick help, check out crontab.guru

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# ⚙️ Example: Automatic Daily Restart

• Cron: 0 5 * * *
• Task 1: say Server restarting in 1 minute!
• Task 2: Delay: 60 seconds, Action: Restart Server

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# 🧯 Common Issues

• 🔒 Task not running? Make sure the schedule is enabled
• ✍️ Command tasks must match in-game syntax (e.g., say, stop)
• 🗃️ For backups, make sure your server has enough allocated storage
• 📄 Always test your cron expression using crontab.guru

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Need help setting up your first schedule? Hit us up on Discord and we’ll walk you through it!