Example: Cron + SkyPilot#

Run a SkyPilot Task with Cron

Find the `sky` executable path#

By default, cron runs with a highly restrictive PATH - /bin:/usr/bin. It is recommended to specify any executable using its full path. To find the full path of sky, run

which sky

A possible value returned by this command is /opt/anaconda3/envs/sky/bin/sky, which is used to denote the full sky path in the rest of this document.

Define a simple cron job#

Run crontab -e. This command opens an editable file.

This file can be edited to define cron jobs. A sample cron job that can be defined is:

*/5 * * * * /opt/anaconda3/envs/sky/bin/sky status

The */5 * * * * segment defines the schedule at which this cron job runs, in this specific case every 5 minutes.

To create a suitable schedule for a cron job, visit https://crontab.guru/.

Log the job output#

The output of the cron job is found in different places depending on the operating system. To find the job output easily, store the cronjob output to a file.

sudo mkdir -p /absolute/path/to/logs/
crontab -e

then edit the crontab file to include:

*/5 * * * * /opt/anaconda3/envs/sky/bin/sky status > "/absolute/path/to/logs/$(date +\%d\%m\%y_\%H\%M\%S).log" 2>&1

date command can be specified here without using its full path, as this command is usually found at /bin/date which is part of a cronjob’s PATH.

Pass in a config file#

To pass in a configuration file to the cronjob, specify a --config file with path to a config file.

crontab example:

*/5 * * * * /opt/anaconda3/envs/sky/bin/sky status --config /absolute/path/to/config/file.yaml > "/absolute/path/to/logs/$(date +\%d\%m\%y_\%H\%M\%S).log" 2>&1

Alternatively, specify SKYPILOT_GLOBAL_CONFIG environment variable for the script.

crontab example:

*/5 * * * * SKYPILOT_GLOBAL_CONFIG=/absolute/path/to/config/file.yaml /opt/anaconda3/envs/sky/bin/sky status > "/absolute/path/to/logs/$(date +\%d\%m\%y_\%H\%M\%S).log" 2>&1

Run a task#

To run a task, refer to this sample cron job:

*/5 * * * * SKYPILOT_GLOBAL_CONFIG=/absolute/path/to/config/file.yaml /opt/anaconda3/envs/sky/bin/sky jobs launch /absolute/path/to/job.yaml -y > "/absolute/path/to/logs/$(date +\%d\%m\%y_\%H\%M\%S).log" 2>&1

Run a task asynchronously#

Simply add the --async flag:

*/5 * * * * SKYPILOT_GLOBAL_CONFIG=/absolute/path/to/config/file.yaml /opt/anaconda3/envs/sky/bin/sky jobs launch /absolute/path/to/job.yaml -y --async > "/absolute/path/to/logs/$(date +\%d\%m\%y_\%H\%M\%S).log" 2>&1

Run multiple commands#

To run multiple commands at once, define the commands as a file:

cron.sh

SKYPILOT_GLOBAL_CONFIG=/absolute/path/to/config/file.yaml
/opt/anaconda3/envs/sky/bin/sky status
/opt/anaconda3/envs/sky/bin/sky jobs launch /absolute/path/to/job1.yaml -y --async
/opt/anaconda3/envs/sky/bin/sky jobs launch /absolute/path/to/job2.yaml -y --async

Using --async flag can help launch multiple jobs at once without waiting for each job to complete before starting the next job.

Then reference the script file in crontab:

*/5 * * * * /absolute/path/to/cron.sh > "/absolute/path/to/logs/$(date +\%d\%m\%y_\%H\%M\%S).log" 2>&1

Run a cronjob against remote API server#

Simply specify the following snippet in the config file passed into the cronjob.

api_server:
  endpoint: <API server endpoint>