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Kubernetes CronJob guide

Understand Kubernetes CronJob schedules, YAML, concurrencyPolicy, missed jobs, and timezone behavior.

Kubernetes CronJobs use standard five-field cron syntax in .spec.schedule.

Example

apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: CronJob
metadata:
  name: daily-cleanup
spec:
  schedule: "0 0 * * *"
  concurrencyPolicy: Forbid
  jobTemplate:
    spec:
      template:
        spec:
          restartPolicy: OnFailure

Operational behavior

  • concurrencyPolicy controls overlapping jobs.
  • startingDeadlineSeconds controls how late missed jobs may start.
  • restartPolicy belongs to the Pod template.
  • Timezone behavior depends on cluster support and .spec.timeZone.

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