cron/scheduled tasks - on shared and VPS sites

Customer Support Customer Only Discussion
1

hi folks

i have a need to run a couple of scheduled daily tasks within a website (a server side script within a site) - some on a VPS machine, and some are on sites on the shared platforms - all are Windows machines/plans.

previously i have set the scripts to run at set intervals during the day, triggered by regular visits to the site. but in the current setup, i need the tasks to run even if the site isn’t visits for a couple of days (its an admin based site, so visits are not high).

whats the best way to set a fairly accurate way of doing this?

thanks!

2

I’ve set up cron jobs on a Linux account to use wget to run ASP scripts on other sites. That way all the other sites can have different scripts to run but the cron jobs themselves are all set up in the same place.

3

interesting - so i can open a linux plan and have everything setup there… thanks!

4

yep that is correct. :slight_smile:

5

great - so a followup question
the unix account i have opened, is using a 3rd level domain of mine.
when i add a new cron job - does it have access access to a domain sitting elsewhere.

so for example - can i have it load http://www.otherdomain.com/ ?

or must the URL it loads be on the same unix plan, using an absolute path?

thanks

6

you can use the cron to access the other url directly, support can help is needed, as doing cron incorrectly can make problems :smiley:

7

thanks Stephen

8

just in case anyone see this, based on the documentation here ,
this is the syntax you need for cron to launch a link: /usr/bin/wget -q -O /dev/null http://example.com/script.php