Cloud Scheduler for cron jobs in GCP - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Cloud Scheduler for cron jobs

📖 Scenario: You work for a company that needs to run a task every day at 9 AM to clean up old files in a storage bucket. You will use Google Cloud Scheduler to create a cron job that triggers a Cloud Function daily.

🎯 Goal: Create a Cloud Scheduler job with a cron schedule that triggers a Cloud Function every day at 9 AM.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a Cloud Scheduler job resource with the exact name daily-cleanup-job.

Set the schedule to run every day at 9 AM using cron syntax.

Configure the job to use the HTTP target with the exact URI https://us-central1-your-project.cloudfunctions.net/cleanupFunction.

Set the HTTP method to POST.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Cloud Scheduler is used to automate tasks like backups, cleanups, and report generation by running jobs on a schedule.

💼 Career

Knowing how to configure Cloud Scheduler jobs is essential for cloud engineers and DevOps professionals managing automated workflows in Google Cloud.

1

Create the Cloud Scheduler job resource

Create a Cloud Scheduler job resource named daily-cleanup-job in YAML format with an empty schedule and target section.

GCP

# Define the Cloud Scheduler job resource named daily-cleanup-job
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Start by defining the job with the name daily-cleanup-job. Leave schedule and httpTarget empty for now.

2

Add the cron schedule

Add the schedule to run every day at 9 AM using the cron expression 0 9 * * * under the spec section of the daily-cleanup-job resource.

GCP

apiVersion: scheduler.googleapis.com/v1beta1
kind: Job
metadata:
  name: daily-cleanup-job
spec:
  schedule: ""
  httpTarget: {}
# Add the cron schedule 0 9 * * * below

Need a hint?

The cron expression 0 9 * * * means every day at 9 AM.

3

Configure the HTTP target URI and method

Set the httpTarget section with the exact URI https://us-central1-your-project.cloudfunctions.net/cleanupFunction and HTTP method POST inside the daily-cleanup-job resource.

GCP

apiVersion: scheduler.googleapis.com/v1beta1
kind: Job
metadata:
  name: daily-cleanup-job
spec:
  schedule: "0 9 * * *"
  httpTarget: {}
# Add httpTarget uri and httpMethod here

Need a hint?

Use uri and httpMethod keys inside httpTarget.

4

Add the timezone configuration

Add the timeZone field with the value America/Los_Angeles under the spec section of the daily-cleanup-job resource to ensure the job runs at 9 AM in that timezone.

GCP

apiVersion: scheduler.googleapis.com/v1beta1
kind: Job
metadata:
  name: daily-cleanup-job
spec:
  schedule: "0 9 * * *"
  httpTarget:
    uri: https://us-central1-your-project.cloudfunctions.net/cleanupFunction
    httpMethod: POST
# Add timeZone: America/Los_Angeles below

Need a hint?

Adding timeZone ensures the job triggers at the correct local time.