# Schedule Recurring Deployments Source: https://docs.ops0.com/docs/how-to/schedule-deployments Deploy Terraform changes automatically on a schedule — whether that's a one-off maintenance window or a nightly recurring apply. --- ## Scenario Your team applies Terraform changes to production during a nightly maintenance window (2–4 AM UTC) to avoid business hours impact. You also want to automatically sync a dev environment every morning so developers start with a clean, known-good state. **Two scheduling modes:** | Mode | Use Case | Example | |------|----------|---------| | **Scheduled (one-off)** | Deploy at a specific future date/time | Production release Tuesday 2 AM UTC | | **Recurring (cron)** | Deploy on a repeating schedule | Dev environment reset every weekday 6 AM UTC | --- ## Prerequisites - IaC project with Terraform code ready — [Create an IaC project](https://docs.ops0.com/docs/how-to/first-iac-deployment) - Cloud integration connected with deploy permissions - Code pushed to GitHub (recommended for recurring applies — ensures the latest code is always used) --- ## Part 1: Schedule a One-off Deployment (Maintenance Window) Use a one-off scheduled deployment when you want to queue a specific deployment for a future date and time — for example, a production release during an approved maintenance window. 1. Open your IaC project 2. Click **Deploy** 3. Under **Timing**, select **Scheduled** 4. Set the date and time — **all times are UTC** 5. Confirm the deployment — ops0 queues it and shows status: **Scheduled** with the fire time ### What happens at the scheduled time 1. **Plan runs automatically** — ops0 fetches the latest code and runs Terraform plan 2. If plan passes policy checks → proceeds to apply (or waits for approval if required) 3. If plan fails → apply is skipped, an incident is created, and your team is notified 4. Apply runs and completes — notification sent to configured alert channels **Cancel before the fire time** You can cancel a queued scheduled deployment at any point before it fires. Click the deployment card → **Cancel**. After the scheduled time passes, the deployment cannot be cancelled. --- ## Part 2: Set Up a Recurring Deployment Use a recurring deployment when you want the same deployment to run automatically on a repeating schedule — for example, a nightly dev environment refresh. 1. Open your IaC project 2. Click **Deploy** 3. Under **Timing**, select **Recurring** 4. Enter a cron expression or choose a preset from the dropdown 5. Click **Save** — the project card shows a **Recurring** badge with next run time ### Cron expression presets | Preset | Expression | When | |--------|-----------|------| | Every weekday morning | `0 6 * * 1-5` | Mon–Fri at 6:00 AM UTC | | Nightly | `0 2 * * *` | Every day at 2:00 AM UTC | | Weekly (Sunday) | `0 0 * * 0` | Sunday midnight UTC | | Every 6 hours | `0 */6 * * *` | 00:00, 06:00, 12:00, 18:00 UTC | | First of month | `0 0 1 * *` | 1st of each month at midnight UTC | **Cron times are always UTC** ops0 evaluates all cron expressions in UTC. Convert your local maintenance window time to UTC before saving the schedule. --- ## Part 3: Combine with Approval Gates If your project has **approval required** enabled, scheduled deployments integrate with the approval flow automatically. | Step | What happens | |------|-------------| | Plan | Runs at the scheduled time as usual | | Apply | **Waits for approval** — does not auto-apply | | Approval window | Approver has until the next scheduled run to approve | | Expiry | If the window closes without approval, the deployment expires and the next run creates a fresh plan | For recurring applies that should run fully automated with no human gate, you have two options: - Disable the approval requirement on the project under **Settings → Approvals** - Use a service account API key to auto-approve via the ops0 API, and trigger it from a CI/CD pipeline --- ## Part 4: Managing Scheduled Deployments ### View and monitor 1. View all scheduled and recurring deployments: **IaC → Deployments** → filter by **Scheduled** 2. Cancel a queued deployment: click the deployment → **Cancel** 3. Disable a recurring schedule: project **Settings → Scheduling** → toggle off 4. View run history: each recurring run creates a separate deployment record in the **Deployments** tab ### Real-world example — Dev environment nightly reset ``` Project: dev-environment Schedule: 0 6 * * 1-5 (weekdays 6 AM UTC) Approval: Disabled Branch: main Result: Dev environment is refreshed each morning with the latest Terraform code from the main branch. Developers arrive to a clean, known-good state without manual intervention. ``` --- ## Verification - After saving, the project card shows the **next run time** - After the first run, the **Deployments** tab shows the run with a timestamp and status - Notification sent to configured alert channels on completion --- ## Troubleshooting Scheduled deployment didn't run Check that the cloud integration credentials haven't expired. Scheduled runs use the same integration as manual deployments — if the IAM role session or service account key has rotated, update it under **Integrations** before the next run. Recurring deployment keeps failing plan The code may have a dependency that returns different values between runs (e.g. a `data` source fetching a dynamic value). Check the plan output for the specific error. Consider pinning the data source or switching to a static variable. Can't find scheduled deployments in history Filter the Deployments list by date range — scheduled runs appear as normal deployments with a **Scheduled** badge. If you recently enabled the schedule, no history exists until the first run fires. --- ## Next Steps [Automate deployments → Set up event-driven pipelines triggered by GitHub PRs and webhooks](https://docs.ops0.com/docs/how-to/automate-deployments) [Approval workflows → Require human sign-off before scheduled deploys reach production](https://docs.ops0.com/docs/how-to/approval-workflows) [IaC deployments reference → Full reference for deployment options, states, and configuration](https://docs.ops0.com/docs/iac/deployments) [Set up GitOps → Deploy automatically when Terraform code is merged to main](https://docs.ops0.com/docs/how-to/setup-gitops)