Two Different Cron Jobs? - Dedicated Server Hosting | VPS Hosting

sandybeach · #1 (**permalink**) 05-28-09, 07:35

I need separate cron jobs and was wondering if I can have more than one? I guess I’m asking if I can have two separate scripts and two separate folders?

techgirl · #2 (**permalink**) 05-28-09, 11:14

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe you can have as many cron jobs setup as you want. I would think the only limit would be the amount of cpu resources you might have to run them on.

madmax · #3 (**permalink**) 05-28-09, 11:25

What exactly is a cron job? Is this something I will have to do myself once I have my website up and running? Or is this something that the host will be doing?

techgirl · #4 (**permalink**) 05-28-09, 11:32

Hi Madmax,

A cron job is an automated system. The best example I can give you is this. Say you have a blog and you have 200 subscribers to your blog newsletter. You can set up a time and date for this to be mailed out to your subscribers using cron. There are many different uses for a cron job, this is just one example and I tried to make it as simple as possible. I’m sure others can shed some light on this for you as well.

sandybeach · #5 (**permalink**) 05-30-09, 09:23

Thanks techgirl, I thought it was possible, but I was not sure enough to give it a try without asking. Thanks for you help.

userdan · #6 (**permalink**) 06-02-09, 11:11

If you're going to be running multiple cron jobs, then the best way to do it would be to have them run at different times. That way the server wouldn't be overloaded with multiple cron jobs running at the same time. With good cron management, you should be able to have as many cron jobs as you want.

sandybeach · #7 (**permalink**) 06-03-09, 04:17

Userdan, that helps a lot. Thanks for the information. I was wondering if I did more than one, if I should schedule them at different times.

Amelia · #8 (**permalink**) 06-03-09, 07:06

Yes, it is highly recommended to run them at separate times. Scheduling them at one time could be very load intensive and is likely to result in stability issues on the server.

madmax · #9 (**permalink**) 06-05-09, 19:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by techgirl

Hi Madmax,

A cron job is an automated system. The best example I can give you is this. Say you have a blog and you have 200 subscribers to your blog newsletter. You can set up a time and date for this to be mailed out to your subscribers using cron. There are many different uses for a cron job, this is just one example and I tried to make it as simple as possible. I’m sure others can shed some light on this for you as well.

Thanks techgirl for answering my question. I know I'm a little behind on my thank yous, but I feel like a sponge and I'm asking questions and then applying them. I am really enjoying my experience with bodhost!

BlueGigs · #10 (**permalink**) 07-19-09, 20:02

Cron jobs are extremely helpful; I used to run an online pet sim and I used cron jobs to automatically change each pet's age (one day older at midnight) and choose the winners of the daily "pet shows" (they all ran at the same time, but it only required one cron job), among other things.

If you don't have cron jobs at your disposal, there's a script called "PseudoCron" that works as an alternative.