System cron
Simplest. A crontab entry runs
dbdock backup on a schedule.Programmatic
Long-lived Node.js process using
node-cron.Cloud scheduler
Kubernetes CronJob, AWS EventBridge, GCP Cloud Scheduler.
Option 1 — System cron (recommended for single server)
Add a crontab entry:Pros
- Simplest possible setup
- Battle-tested scheduler
- Works even if DBDock isn’t running
Cons
- Limited logging/observability
- No programmatic control
- Harder on Kubernetes/serverless
Option 2 — Programmatic with node-cron
Run DBDock as a long-lived Node.js process. Useful when you want to share backup scheduling with the rest of your app.Pros
- Full control — custom logic before/after backup
- Tight integration with app observability
- Works with alert programmatic API
Cons
- Needs a long-lived process
- One more thing that can crash
Option 3 — Cloud schedulers
Kubernetes CronJob
AWS EventBridge + Fargate/Lambda
Schedule rule → ECS RunTask (Fargate) that runs a DBDock container. Or package as a Lambda if your backup fits in 15 minutes and 10 GB.GCP Cloud Scheduler + Cloud Run
Cloud Scheduler → HTTPS → Cloud Run service that invokesdbdock backup.
Pros
- Fully managed, scales with your infra
- Rich logging and retry semantics
- Runs even if your app is down
Cons
- More moving pieces
- Infrastructure-specific setup
Using the dbdock schedule command
The dbdock schedule command stores schedules in dbdock.config.json:
dbdock schedule — your scheduler of choice holds the schedule.
Recommended schedule patterns
Pair a frequent schedule with a retention policy to keep storage under control — see Retention strategies.
See also
dbdock schedule
Manage schedules via CLI.
SDK scheduling
Programmatic scheduling details.

