Systems administration

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

We’ve been running Linux servers since 2003. We started out as employees managing systems, and later found each other here. Today, sysadmin work is our bread and butter.

Who it’s for

We work with companies that have their own servers or VPS that someone needs to keep up. A typical client has 5–50 machines running a mix of web, databases, internal applications. They usually don’t need a full sysadmin team — but they need someone to respond, keep a firm hand on the infrastructure, and work through their requirements with them.

systemd timers instead of cron

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Cron has one enormous advantage: everyone knows it. And one disadvantage: when it fails, you find out by email to root@localhost, which nobody reads.

systemd timers fix exactly that.

The basics

A timer is two files — .service (what runs) and .timer (when).

# /etc/systemd/system/backup.service
[Unit]
Description=Nightly backup
After=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/backup.sh

# /etc/systemd/system/backup.timer
[Unit]
Description=Run backup nightly

[Timer]
OnCalendar=*-*-* 02:30:00
RandomizedDelaySec=15m
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

What cron can’t do

Persistent=true — if the machine was off at the scheduled time, the job runs at next boot. Cron just skips it.

Linux on 5ok — sysadmin, devops, hosting

Systems administration

Who it’s for

systemd timers instead of cron

The basics

What cron can’t do