Cloudera Docs

Understanding the Cron Expression generator

In the Profiler > Configs > Detail page, a cron expression defines when the profiler schedule executes and visualizes the next execution dates of your profiling jobs.

The Unix (in Compute Cluster enabled environments) and quartz (in VM-based environments) cron expressions use the following typical format:

Each * in the cron represents a unique value.

Schedule: * * * * * ? *

In this format the * characters represent the following units:
  1. seconds (0-59)
  2. minutes (0-59)
  3. hours (0-23)
  4. day of the month (1-31)
  5. month (1-12 or JAN-DEC)
  6. day of the week (1-7 or SUN-SAT)
  7. year (optional, 1970-2099)

Consider the following examples:

1 2 3 2 5 ? 2021
This cron expression is scheduled to run the profiler job at: 03:02:01am, on the 2nd day, in May, in 2021.
* * * ? * *
Every second
0 * * ? * *
Every minute (every 60th second)
0 0 * ? * *
Every hour (every 60th minute)
0 0 13 * * ?
At 13:00:00 every day
0 0 13 ? * WED
At 13:00:00, on every Wednesday, every month
0 0 13 ? * MON-FRI
At 13:00:00, on every weekday, every month
0 0 12 2 * ?
Every month on the 2nd, at noon

Cron Expression: 0 18 * * *

In this format the * characters represent the following units:
  1. minute (0-59)
  2. hour (0-23)
  3. day of the month (1-31)
  4. month (1-12)
  5. day of the week (0-6)

Consider the following examples:

30 10 15 5 *
This cron expression is scheduled to run the profiler job at: “At 10:30 on 15th day-of-month in May.”
30 10 * 5 7
This cron expression is scheduled to run the profiler job at: “At 10:30 on Sunday in May”.
5 * * * *
Every fifth minute of the hour. (18:05, 19:05, 20:05, etc.)
5 5 * * *
At 05:05 every day.
5 5 5 * *
At 05:05 on every fifth day of the month. (07-05 05:05:00, 08-05 05:05:00, 09-05 05:05:00, etc.)
5 5 5 5 *
At 05:05 on every fifth day of May (fifth month of the year); (2026-05-05 05:05:00, 2027-05-05 05:05:00, 2028-05-05 05:05:00, etc.)
5 5 5 5 5
At 05:05 on fifth day of the month OR if its a Friday (fifth day of the week) in May (fifth month of the year); 2026-05-01 05:05:00, 2026-05-05 05:05:00, 2026-05-08 05:05:00, etc.

You can change the value of cron as and when it is required depending on how you want to schedule your profiler job.