Question
The Plesk Daily Maintenance tasks cause at lot of resource usage on a daily basis and always at times that are inconvenient, how can I switch the hours during which they run?
Answer
You may adjust the time during which the Plesk Daily Maintenance script scheduled task runs by following these steps:
1. Log into your server via SSH as the root user
2. List the task execution time by running this command:
# grep -E "START_HOURS_RANGE|cron.daily" /etc/anacrontab
START_HOURS_RANGE=3-22
1 5 cron.daily nice run-parts /etc/cron.daily
Note: If the second column is with a parameter START_HOURS_RANGE= 3-22, cron.daily scripts will run at 03:05 AM.
By default, anacron runs jobs between 03:00 and 22:00 and randomly delays jobs by between 5 and 50 minutes. The job scripts in /etc/cron.daily, run anywhere between 03:05 and 03:50 every day if the system is running, or after the system is booted and the time is less than 22:00. The run-parts script sequentially executes every program within the directory specified as its argument.
3. To adjust the specified range, you should open the /etc/anacrontab file with your favorite command-line text editor and edit the START_HOURS_RANGE to a value that works for you.
1. Log into your server via SSH as the root user
2. List the task execution time by running this command:
# grep "cron.daily" /etc/crontab
9 2 * * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily )
In this case, the Plesk Maintenance script scheduled task is executed on 02:09 AM every day.
Note: Explanations for the exact time values and their meaning are available here. The run-parts script sequentially executes every program within the directory specified as its argument.
3. To adjust the specified range, you should open the /etc/crontab file with your favorite command-line text editor and edit the 9 2 * * * to a value that works for you.