How to Schedule Automated Tasks in ASIATOOLS

To schedule automated tasks in ASIATOOLS, you start by opening the Automation section of the dashboard, pick the task you want to run, choose a trigger type (interval, cron, or one‑time), set the precise timing parameters, and then save and enable the schedule. The platform processes the request within seconds, and you can monitor execution status in real time from the same view.

Before you dive in, make sure your account has the Automation Manager role, that you have an active API key, and that the target resource (server, script, or third‑party service) is already registered in the inventory. If any of those prerequisites are missing, the schedule creation wizard will flag the issue and guide you to fix it.

Understanding the Scheduling Engine

The ASIATOOLS scheduling engine runs on a distributed queue that can handle up to 500 tasks per minute on a standard enterprise plan. The engine uses UTC as the reference timezone, but you can specify a display timezone for UI convenience. Each schedule is stored in a redundant MySQL cluster with automatic failover, guaranteeing 99.99 % uptime.

Schedule Type	Description	Min Interval	Max Interval
Interval	Recurring based on a fixed time unit (seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks)	1 minute	60 days
Cron	Unix‑like cron expression for flexible timing (5‑field format)	1 minute	Same as interval
One‑time	Single execution at a specific future timestamp	N/A	Supports dates up to 1 year ahead

When you create a schedule, ASIATOOLS validates the parameters immediately. If you try to set an interval shorter than 1 minute, the UI will display a validation error with the message: “Minimum interval is 60 seconds.” Similarly, a cron expression that resolves to a time in the past will be rejected with an “Invalid next run time” warning.

Setting Up a Simple Interval Task via the UI

Follow these steps to schedule a task that repeats every five minutes:

• Log in to the ASIATOOLS dashboard and click Automation in the left‑hand navigation.
• Click New Schedule and select the target task from the drop‑down list. You can filter tasks by type (script, API call, data sync) or by tag.
• In the Trigger section, choose Interval.
• Enter the interval value and unit. For a five‑minute repeat, type 5 and select minutes from the unit selector.
• If you need the schedule to respect a specific timezone, expand the Advanced Options panel and pick a timezone from the list. ASIATOOLS supports 150+ zones, including UTC, Asia/Shanghai, America/New_York, and many more.
• Optionally, set a Grace Period (default 60 seconds) to allow late starts without marking the run as failed.
• Click Save & Enable. The UI will display a green status badge and a countdown timer showing the next run.

Tip: When you first create a schedule, run it in “Dry‑run” mode for a few cycles to ensure the payload behaves as expected. You can toggle Dry‑run from the schedule’s detail view.

Advanced Scheduling with Cron Expressions

If you need a schedule that fires at specific times on certain days, cron expressions give you fine‑grained control. ASIATOOLS supports the standard 5‑field cron format:

• Minute (0‑59)
• Hour (0‑23)
• Day of month (1‑31)
• Month (1‑12)
• Day of week (0‑6, 0 = Sunday)

You can also use special characters:

• * – any value
• , – value list separator (e.g., 1,3,5)
• - – range (e.g., 9-17)
• / – step (e.g., */15 runs every 15 units)

Example: To run a data‑export job at 9:00 am on weekdays, use the expression 0 9 * * 1-5. The UI will render a human‑readable preview: “Runs at 09:00 AM, Monday through Friday (UTC).”

Field	Allowed Values	Typical Example
Minute	0‑59	0 – on the hour
Hour	0‑23	14 – 2 PM
Day of month	1‑31	15 – 15th day
Month	1‑12	6,12 – June or December
Day of week	0‑6	0,6 – Saturday & Sunday

When you input a cron expression, ASIATOOLS validates the syntax and instantly shows the next five run times. If the expression is invalid, the UI will highlight the problematic segment and suggest a correction.

Using the CLI for Task Scheduling

For power users who prefer a terminal workflow, ASIATOOLS offers a command‑line interface (CLI) that mirrors the UI functionality. Install the CLI with:

npm install -g asiatools-cli

Authenticate using your API key:

asiatools login --api-key YOUR_API_KEY

Create an interval‑based schedule:

asiatools schedule create \
  --name "Backup-DB-5m" \
  --task-id "db-backup-001" \
  --type interval \
  --interval 5m \
  --timezone "Asia/Shanghai" \
  --enabled

To create a cron‑based schedule, replace the --type and --interval flags with --cron:

asiatools schedule create \
  --name "Daily-Report-0900" \
  --task-id "report-gen-002" \
  --type cron \
  --cron "0 9 * * 1-5" \
  --timezone "UTC" \
  --enabled

The CLI returns a JSON object with the schedule ID, next run timestamp, and status. You can view the full schedule details later with:

asiatools schedule get --id SCHEDULE_ID

Scheduling via the REST API

Developers can also embed scheduling into custom applications using the ASIATOOLS REST API. The endpoint for schedule creation is POST /v2/schedules. Below is a minimal request payload for an interval schedule:

{
  "name": "Sync-Users-10m",
  "task_id": "user-sync-003",
  "trigger": {
    "type": "interval",
    "interval": 600,
    "unit": "seconds"
  },
  "timezone": "America/Los_Angeles",
  "enabled": true,
  "retry": {
    "max_attempts": 3,
    "backoff_multiplier": 2
  }
}

When the request is successful, the response includes a schedule_id, <