NOTE: This article is written for our First-Generation Cloud Control Panel. You can access this interface from the Next-Generation Cloud Control Panel by clicking your username in the upper-right of the control panel and selecting "First-Generation Control Panel".

Before scheduling a task, take a minute to review the five necessary components in creating a scheduled task on Cloud Sites:

1. Task Name – You will need to name each cron job you schedule. The name you choose is completely up to you and does not have any specific requirements.

2. Email Address for Output - You will need a valid email address so you can receive notice once the job has completed. You may have to tune your spam filter settings to receive the desired status emails.

3. Command Language - What language is the script to be executed written in? The Rackspace Cloud supports the scheduling of scripts which execute in the following environments:

* PHP
* Python
* Perl
* HTTP

Items to note about the scripting language options:

• The "Perl" option can also be used to execute shell scripts.
• The "HTTP" option causes a visit to the URL you provide (technically running "curl <URL>" for the cron task).  The output is sent to the task log in your webroot's "logs" directory.

4. Command to Run – You’ll need to indicate the path to the script that you wish to be execute.

5. Frequency / Date / Time - How frequently do you want the task to run? Everyday? Once a week? Once a week on a certain day of the week? Once a month? Once a month on a certain day of the month? What time of day do you want the specified task to run? All of these variations are possible through The Rackspace Cloud control panel.

Here’s an example of setting up a new scheduled task in The Rackspace Cloud control panel.

1. Log into the Control Panel at https://manage.rackspacecloud.com.

2. Click on "Hosting" on the left navigation menu and then click on "Cloud Sites". Click on the site you want to add a cron to.

3. Click on the "Features" tab on the top navigation bar.

3. Scroll down to the section called “Scheduled Tasks (Cron Jobs).” This is where you will see all tasks that you have scheduled and their status for that particular domain.

4. Add a new task by clicking the “Add New Task” button. (NOTE: All newly created cron jobs are enabled by default.)

5. Enter a task name. For this example, let’s call our task as “Wake Me Up.”

6. Enter the email address where you want the output from your task to be sent. For this illustration, we’ll enter sleepyuser@myhome.com.

7. The script that was chosen is written in Perl. So we’ll choose Perl as the command language.

8. Under the Command to Run option, it’s important to note that the top-level fully qualified path will be appended to the script path. Now the fully qualified path to our script is:

/mnt/Target01/123456/www.wakeupcall.com/scripts/wakemeup.pl

In this case, we would only have to enter “scripts/wakemeup.pl” in the field. “/mnt/Target01/123456/www.wakeupcall.com/” will automatically be appended. Please also note that the trailing slash is automatically added.

9. The next section involves scheduling the time when the job needs to be run. In our case, we want the script to run every day at 7:00AM. So we would change the selection under “Repeat by the: __” drop down menu to “Day.” In the “Time” field, we would enter “7:00.”

10. Click the “Add Task” button at the bottom and the cron job will be enabled.

NOTE: When you add a website through The Rackspace Cloud control panel, a log directory is also created as a part of the website directory structure. In order for the cron tool to run properly, this directory structure must be preserved.

If you have any other questions on scheduling a task, please do not hesitate to contact our support team.