What Schedules Do

A schedule is a timer attached to your server. When its time comes up, it runs a list of tasks in order. Each task is one of three actions:

For restarting a Rust server, prefer a Send Command task running restart 300 over a Send Power Action restart. The native restart command counts down, broadcasts a warning to players, and saves the world before shutting down gracefully. A Power Action restart is an abrupt process-level stop with no countdown and no final save, which risks rollback. Save Power Actions for when the server is unresponsive and a hard restart is the only option.

A schedule can hold several tasks, and each task can wait a set number of seconds after the previous one. For a Rust restart, a single restart 300 command handles the countdown, warning, and save on its own, so most schedules need just one or two tasks.

Creating a Schedule

1. Open your server in the panel and go to the Schedules tab.
2. Click Create Schedule.
3. Give it a clear name, for example Nightly Restart or Hourly Save.
4. Fill in the cron fields for when it should run (see the Cron Syntax Reference below). There is a cheatsheet link in the panel if you need it.
5. Make sure the schedule is enabled, then create it.

Once the schedule exists, open it to add tasks. An empty schedule with no tasks does nothing.

Cron Syntax Reference

The panel times schedules with cron, which is five fields describing minute, hour, day, month, and weekday:

┌── minute (0-59)
│ ┌── hour (0-23)
│ │ ┌── day of month (1-31)
│ │ │ ┌── month (1-12)
│ │ │ │ ┌── day of week (0-6, Sunday = 0)
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * *

The pieces you will use most:

Two things worth remembering: cron runs on the server's time, so account for the offset from your own timezone, and the weekday field treats Sunday as 0 (and 7 also works as Sunday on most setups).

Adding Tasks to a Schedule

With a schedule open, click New Task to add an action.

1. Pick the action. For a Rust restart this is Send Command with restart 300, not a Power Action (see the note above).
2. For a command, enter it without a leading slash, for example save not /save.
3. Set the time offset in seconds. This is how long the task waits after the previous task starts.
4. Create the task. Repeat for each step in your routine.

Tasks run top to bottom, each waiting for its offset. To test the whole thing immediately without waiting for the scheduled time, use the Run Now button and watch the Console tab for the sequence. Always run a new schedule once this way before relying on it.

The Native Restart Command Handles Warnings for You

On Rust you do not need to stack say messages and a power action to give players notice. The built-in restart command does all of it from one task.

The command takes a countdown in seconds and an optional message:

restart 300 "Nightly restart"

This counts down five minutes, automatically broadcasting the remaining time to players in chat, saves the world, then shuts down gracefully. Our panel detects the clean shutdown and brings the server back up, so you do not even need a follow-up start task.

A few things worth knowing:

• With no number, restart defaults to a 300-second countdown.
• To cancel an in-progress restart, run restart with a negative number, for example restart -1.
• For an extra on-screen countdown bar, a plugin like Smooth Restarter can hook the same command, but it is optional. The vanilla countdown already warns players in chat.

If you want offsets for something else in the routine (like taking a backup first), you still chain tasks with delays the same way; the restart task just goes last.

Common Schedule Examples

Daily Restart at 4AM

A nightly restart clears memory and keeps performance steady. Many owners pick a low-traffic hour like 4 AM.

• Cron: 0 4 *
• Tasks: 1. Send Command: restart 300 "Nightly restart" (offset 0)

That single command gives players a five-minute countdown, saves the world, and restarts gracefully. The panel boots the server back up after the clean shutdown, so no power action or separate save task is needed.

Hourly World Save

Frequent saves reduce how much progress is lost if the server crashes between restarts.

• Cron: 0
• Tasks: 1. Send Command: save (offset 0)

That is the whole schedule, one save command at the top of every hour. On Rust the world also saves on its own interval, but an explicit hourly save is cheap insurance.

Weekly Scheduled Backup

A weekly backup gives you a restore point if a save corrupts or a change goes wrong. Pair the backup with a restart so the server is in a clean state when it runs.

• Cron: 0 5 1 (Mondays at 5:00 AM)
• Tasks: 1. Create Backup (offset 0) 2. Send Command: restart 300 "Weekly maintenance" (offset 180)

The 180-second offset gives the backup time to finish before the restart task fires, then restart 300 adds its own five-minute countdown on top. Keep an eye on your plan's backup limit, since the panel will not exceed it; prune old backups if you hit the cap. See Backups.

What to Read Next

• Wipe Management for automating Rust wipes alongside your restart and backup schedules
• Backups for creating, restoring, and downloading backups
• Performance Optimization for why scheduled restarts help keep a Rust server smooth