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Cron Job Monitoring That Tells You the Second a Job Fails, Runs Late, or Goes Silent

Your cron jobs, crontab entries, backups, ETL pipelines and background tasks run when no one's watching. Dotcom-Monitor watches for you — send one heartbeat and get an instant alert the moment a scheduled run is missed, late, or too slow.

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What Is Cron Job Monitoring?

Cron job monitoring is a way to confirm that scheduled tasks — cron jobs, crontab entries, backups, and background scripts — actually run on time and finish successfully. Each job sends a small signal called a heartbeat when it runs. If that heartbeat arrives late, never arrives, or reports a failure, the monitoring service sends an instant alert so you find out before your users do.

Because a missed cron job is invisible by default — nothing errors out, the job simply doesn’t happen — dedicated crontab monitoring and reliable cron monitoring are the only way to catch silent failures in backups, data pipelines, and scheduled reports.

Complete visibility

Monitor Any Cron Job, Crontab Entry, or Scheduled Task

If it runs on a schedule and can reach the internet, we can watch it. Turn every cron job into a datapoint you can trend, alert on, and prove — all in the same platform you already use for website and API monitoring.

Late & Missing Run Detection

Get alerted when a cron job doesn’t report within its expected window — or when it runs but takes far longer than it should.

Duration Tracking & Trends

Chart execution time over days and weeks to catch slow regressions and capacity problems long before they cause an outage.

Flexible Schedules

Cron expressions, fixed intervals (every 24h), or specific times of day. Match the exact cadence your jobs actually run on.

Multi-Channel Alerts

Email, SMS, voice, Slack, Microsoft Teams, PagerDuty and webhooks — with escalation so the right person always gets it.

Rich Metrics, Not Just Up/Down

Send status, duration, rows processed, output size or any KPI in a simple JSON POST. Every value is stored and charted.

One Unified Platform

Reuse the same dashboards, teams and alert rules you already have for website, API and infrastructure monitoring.

Set up in about 3 minutes

How Cron Job Monitoring Works

No agents to install and nothing to open on your firewall. If your cron job, crontab entry, or scheduled task can make an HTTP request, you’re one line away from full monitoring on Linux, Windows, or any platform.

Create a Monitor

Add a Custom Collector in your dashboard and tell us the schedule you expect — a cron expression, an interval, or a time of day.

Send a Heartbeat

Add a single HTTP POST to the end of your script or task. Include any metrics you care about as name/value pairs.

Relax — We Watch It

We track every run. If a heartbeat is late, missing, too slow, or reports a failure, you get an instant alert.

One Line at the End of Your Job

The same heartbeat carries as many metrics as you want. Set a threshold on any of them — alert when status reports failure, when duration_sec exceeds a limit, or when rows falls below what you’d expect from a healthy run.

Works from a Bash script, a Python job, a Windows Task, a Docker container, a Kubernetes CronJob, or a serverless function — anything that can call a URL.

How to Monitor a Cron Job on Linux

To monitor cron jobs on Linux, chain a single curl heartbeat onto the end of your existing crontab entry. It fires only when the job actually runs — so if the run is skipped, the machine is down, or the command fails, no heartbeat arrives and you get alerted. Open your crontab with crontab -e and add:

				
					# run the backup at 2:00 AM, then send a heartbeat
0 2 * * * /opt/scripts/backup.sh && \
  curl -fsS -m 10 "https://wdc.dotcom-monitor.com/apiv1/tasks/post/$COLLECTOR" \
  -d '{ "backup_status": 1 }'

That’s it — Dotcom-Monitor now expects a heartbeat from this crontab entry on its schedule and alerts you the moment one is late or missing. The same approach works for Windows Task Scheduler (call the URL with PowerShell) and macOS launchd.

Built for real jobs

What Teams Monitor With It

Database Backups

Verify nightly backups actually complete — and that the output isn’t suspiciously small. Alert on any missed or oversized run.

ETL & Data Pipelines

Track imports, exports and transforms. Watch duration and records processed, and catch slowdowns or silent failures early.

Reports & Invoicing

Make sure scheduled reports and billing runs finish on time — and alert if a run is skipped or produces an empty file.

Security & Compliance Scans

Confirm scans run on cadence and return expected results. Alert on failures or unusual spikes in scan duration.

Connectivity & Edge Devices

Have IoT and edge devices ping in when healthy. A missing heartbeat instantly flags a device or connection that’s dropped.

Queue Workers & Services

Watch background workers and long-running services. Send a status of 0 the moment a process stops and get paged right away.

Platform-agnostic

Works Everywhere Your Jobs Run

Windows, Linux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes, serverless, IoT — if it can send an HTTP POST, it can be monitored. No agents, no extra infrastructure.

Linux / cron & crontab

Windows Task Scheduler

macOS launchd

Docker & Kubernetes CronJobs

Serverless / Lambda

Python · Bash · Node

IoT & edge devices

Beyond pass / fail

Track Custom Metrics on Every Cron Run

Each heartbeat can carry multiple name/value pairs — duration, output size, records processed, or any measurement your job produces. Every value is stored and charted over time.

Set a per-metric threshold and let each one trigger its own alert. If your script detects a problem, send 0 for a status metric to fire an immediate notification — no matter what the schedule says.

Rated 4.5 on Capterra

What Our Customers Say

"The real-time alerts and detailed performance analytics have been a game-changer for our uptime. The intuitive dashboard makes it easy to track everything, and their support is exceptional — always responsive and efficient."

Tomer C.

Managing Director · Facilities Services

Verified Capterra review, 2025

"The push/pull API capabilities give us the performance data we need. Dotcom-Monitor lets us monitor multiple services within one interface and platform. It's allowed us to operate more efficiently."

Gregory S.

Manager · Broadcast Media

Verified Capterra review, 2023

"I've been thoroughly impressed with the detail and comprehensiveness of the reports. The support team has exceeded my expectations — consistently patient, with detailed and insightful answers."

Shirin R.

Software Test Engineer · Computer Software

Verified Capterra review, 2026

4.5

Capterra

82 reviews

4.6

Ease of Use

Capterra Score reviews

4.6

Customer Service

Capterra Score reviews

All reviews sourced from Capterra verified reviews. Ratings as of July 2026.

Get answers

Cron Job Monitoring FAQ

What is cron job monitoring and how does it work?

Cron job monitoring tracks your scheduled tasks by receiving heartbeats — simple HTTP requests your job sends when it runs. You define the schedule you expect using cron expressions, intervals, or specific times. If a heartbeat arrives late or never arrives, Dotcom-Monitor alerts you immediately. It works with anything that can send an HTTP POST, from database backups to ETL pipelines.

How long does it take to set up?

About three minutes. Create a monitor in your dashboard, define the expected schedule, and add a single HTTP POST to the end of your script or task. Once configured, you start receiving heartbeat data and alerts right away — no agents to install.

What platforms and systems are supported?

It’s completely platform-agnostic. Windows, Linux, macOS, Docker containers, Kubernetes, serverless functions, and IoT devices — any system that can reach the internet and make an HTTP request can integrate with the platform.

Can I track custom metrics beyond success or failure?

Yes. Send multiple name/value pairs with each heartbeat — execution duration, records processed, output size, or any custom KPI. Each metric is stored, charted, and can have its own threshold-based alerts, so you can alert when duration exceeds a limit or record counts fall below expectations.

What types of alerts are available?

Email, SMS, voice calls, Slack, Microsoft Teams, PagerDuty, and webhooks. Alerts support escalation policies, so if an issue isn’t acknowledged, notifications automatically escalate to the next person or channel.

What happens if my job fails or runs too long?

Dotcom-Monitor sends an immediate alert based on your rules. You can alert on late or missing runs when a job doesn’t report within its window, and on jobs that exceed a maximum duration — helping you catch performance regressions and capacity issues early.

How do I monitor a cron job on Linux?

Add a single curl request to the end of your crontab entry so it sends a heartbeat when the job runs — for example 0 2 * * * /path/backup.sh && curl -fsS https://wdc.dotcom-monitor.com/apiv1/tasks/post/$COLLECTOR. Dotcom-Monitor expects that heartbeat on schedule and alerts you if it’s late or missing. No agent is installed on the server, and the same method works for Windows Task Scheduler and macOS launchd.

How do I know if a cron job failed or didn't run at all?

A failed or skipped cron job is silent — nothing errors out, so you can’t tell from the server alone. With heartbeat monitoring, the heartbeat only fires on a successful run. If the job fails, the machine is down, or cron never triggers it, no heartbeat arrives within the expected window and you’re alerted automatically. You can also send a status value of 0 from your script to flag a failure explicitly.

What's the difference between cron job monitoring and crontab monitoring?

They refer to the same thing. “Crontab monitoring” emphasizes the Linux/Unix crontab file where cron jobs are defined, while “cron job monitoring” is the general term for watching any scheduled task. Dotcom-Monitor covers both — plus Windows Task Scheduler, Kubernetes CronJobs, serverless schedules, and any other job that can send an HTTP request.

Is there a free trial?

Yes — a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. All premium features are included, and you get 24/7 expert support throughout the trial.

Stop Finding Out About Failed Jobs From Your Customers

Set up your first cron job monitor in about three minutes and never miss a critical run again.