Scheduling

Scheduling controls when replication cycles run, when maintenance tasks execute, and how Datamotive handles conflicts between overlapping jobs.

Replication interval

The primary schedule for a protection plan is the replication interval, which sets how often an incremental cycle runs. A shorter interval improves RPO at the cost of more frequent API calls and slightly higher CPU usage on the appliance.

Maintenance windows

Maintenance windows restrict when certain job types run. Use them to prevent resource-intensive tasks (initial seeds, consistency checks) from running during peak business hours.

Configure maintenance windows in Settings then Schedules. Each window specifies:

• Days of the week (for example: Monday through Friday)
• Start and end time in UTC
• Job types allowed within the window (initial seed, consistency check, or both)

Incremental replication cycles are not affected by maintenance windows: they always run on the configured interval to maintain RPO.

Cron expressions

For consistency checks and maintenance tasks, Datamotive supports standard five-field cron expressions:

minute  hour  day-of-month  month  day-of-week
  0      2        *           *        0        → Every Sunday at 02:00 UTC
  0     22        *           *       1-5       → Monday to Friday at 22:00 UTC

Cron scheduling is available under Plans then Advanced settings then Consistency check schedule.

Job conflict handling

If a scheduled job would start while the previous cycle is still running, the control plane skips the new instance and logs a Skipped: cycle in progress event. The next scheduled instance runs normally. This prevents overlapping cycles from competing for the same snapshot resources.

For one-off manual triggers (for example, Run now in the console), the job is queued and starts immediately after the in-progress cycle completes.