System Scheduler Manual

Document revision 19-Nov-2002
This document applies to the MikroTik RouterOS V2.6

Overview

The scheduler is used to execute scripts at certain times. It has an ordered list of tasks

For details on scripting, consult respective manual

Contents of the Manual

The following topics are covered in this manual:

Installation
Hardware Resource Usage
Using System Scheduler
System Scheduler Examples

Installation

The System Scheduler features are included in the 'system' package. No installation is needed for this feature

Hardware Resource Usage

Hardware resource usage depends on the script that is run using the System Scheduler feature.

Using System Scheduler

To add a task, use the add command. For example, we add a task that executes the script log-test every hour:

[admin@MikroTik] system script> add name=log-test source=:log
[admin@MikroTik] system script> print
  0 name="log-test" source=":log" owner=admin run-count=0


[admin@MikroTik] system script> .. scheduler
[admin@MikroTik] system scheduler> add name=run-1h interval=1h script=log-test
[admin@MikroTik] system scheduler> print
Flags: X - disabled
  #   NAME      SCRIPT   START-DATE  START-TIME INTERVAL             RUN-COUNT
  0   run-1h    log-test oct/30/2008 15:08:22   1h                   1
[admin@MikroTik] system scheduler>

Argument description:

name - name of the task
start-time and start-date - time and date of first execution
interval - interval between two script executions, if time interval is set to zero, the script is only executed at it's start time, otherwise it is executed repeatedly at the time interval specified
run-count - to monitor script usage, this counter is incremented each time the script is executed, it can be reset to zero. Note that rebooting the router will reset this counter
script - name of the script. The script must be present at /system script.

Here are two scripts that will change the bandwidth setting of a queue rule "Cust0". Everyday at 9AM the queue will be set to 64Kb/s and at 5PM the queue will be set to 128Kb/s. The queue rule, the scripts, and the scheduler tasks are below:

[admin@MikroTik] queue simple> add name=Cust0 interface=ether1 dst-address=192.168.0.0/24 \
\... limit-at=64000
[admin@MikroTik] queue simple> print
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid
  0   name="Cust0" src-address=0.0.0.0/0 dst-address=192.168.0.0/24
      interface=ether1 limit-at=64000 queue=default priority=8 bounded=yes


[admin@MikroTik] queue simple> /system script
[admin@MikroTik] system script> add name=start_limit source={/queue simple set Cust0 \
\... limit-at=64000}
[admin@MikroTik] system script> add name=stop_limit source={/queue simple set Cust0 \
\... limit-at=128000}
[admin@MikroTik] system script> print
  0 name="start_limit" source="/queue simple set Cust0 limit-at=64000"
    owner=admin run-count=0

  1 name="stop_limit" source="/queue simple set Cust0 limit-at=128000"
    owner=admin run-count=0


[admin@MikroTik] system script> .. scheduler
[admin@MikroTik] system scheduler> add interval=24h name="set-64k" start-time=9:00:00 \
\... script=start_limit
[admin@MikroTik] system scheduler> add interval=24h name="set-128k" start-time=17:00:00 \
\... script=stop_limit
[admin@MikroTik] system scheduler> print
Flags: X - disabled
  #   NAME      SCRIPT   START-DATE  START-TIME INTERVAL             RUN-COUNT
  0   set-64k   start... oct/30/2008 09:00:00   1d                   0
  1   set-128k  stop_... oct/30/2008 17:00:00   1d                   0
[admin@MikroTik] system scheduler>

The following setup schedules script that sends each week backup of router configuration by e-mail.

[admin@MikroTik] system script> add name=e-backup source={/system backup save name=email;
{... /tool e-mail send to="root@host.com" \
{... subject=[/system identity get name]" Backup" \
{... file=email.backup}
[admin@MikroTik] system script> print
  0 name="e-backup" source="/system backup save name=ema... owner=admin
    run-count=0

[admin@MikroTik] system script> .. scheduler
[admin@MikroTik] system scheduler> add interval=7d name="email-backup" script=e-backup
[admin@MikroTik] system scheduler> print
Flags: X - disabled
  #   NAME      SCRIPT   START-DATE  START-TIME INTERVAL             RUN-COUNT
  0   email-... e-backup oct/30/2008 15:19:28   7d                   1
[admin@MikroTik] system scheduler>

Do not forget to set the e-mail settings, i.e., the SMTP server and From: address under /tool e-mail. For example:

[admin@MikroTik] tool e-mail> set server=159.148.147.198 from=SysAdmin@host.com
[admin@MikroTik] tool e-mail> print
    server: 159.148.147.198
      from: SysAdmin@host.com
[admin@MikroTik] tool e-mail>

If more than one script has to be executed at one time, they are executed in the order they appear in the scheduler configuration. This can be important if, for example, one scheduled script is used to disable another. The order of scripts can be changed with the move command.

If a more complex execution pattern is needed, it can usually be done by scheduling several scripts, and making them enable and disable each other. Example below will put 'x' in logs each hour from midnight till noon: