LukeJMadden Monitor scheduled tasks and ensure nothing runs silently broken.
What to Track Per Job
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Job identifier |
| Schedule | Cron expression |
| Last run | Timestamp of most recent execution |
| Last status | Success or failure |
| Duration | How long it took |
| Output | Key metrics or error message |
Health Check Pattern
For each scheduled job:
- Has it run in the expected window? (compare schedule vs last_run)
- Did it succeed? (check status)
- Was the duration normal? (compare vs 7-day average)
- Did it produce expected output? (records_processed > 0)
Alert Conditions
- Missed run — job didn't execute within 2× its scheduled interval
- Consecutive failures — same job failed 3+ times in a row
- Duration anomaly — took 3× longer than average
- Zero output — ran successfully but processed 0 records (may indicate upstream data issue)
Daily Summary Format
Cron jobs (24h): X ok, Y failed
Failed:
• job_name: error description
Slow:
• job_name: took Xms (avg: Yms)
Safety: Before Restart
Before restarting any service, check:
- Are any cron jobs currently running?
- Are any scheduled to run in the next 5 minutes?
- If yes → defer the restart until the window is clear
- If no → safe to restart