Monitor Database Backup Cron Jobs
Never discover a failed backup during an outage
The problem
Database backups run silently at 2 AM. When pg_dump fails because of a permissions change, disk full, or connection timeout, nobody notices — until a production incident forces a restore and the latest backup is three days old.
# Before: silent failure
$ crontab -l
0 2 * * * /usr/bin/pg_dump mydb > /backups/daily.sql
# After: monitored with crond-agent
$ crond-agent wrap --name "db-backup" -- pg_dump mydb > /backups/daily.sql
[crond.io] monitoring "db-backup" (every 24h)
[crond.io] ping sent ✓ (exit 0, 47.3s)
# Next night...
[crond.io] MISSED PING — alerting now
[crond.io] email sent → ops@example.com
How crond.io helps
Wrap your backup command with crond-agent. It reports success, failure, exit codes, and duration to crond.io after every run. If a backup doesn't complete within the expected window, you're alerted immediately.
- ✓Instant alerts when pg_dump, mysqldump, or mongodump fails
- ✓Duration tracking to catch slow backups before they overlap the next run
- ✓Exit code reporting — know exactly why the backup failed
- ✓Grace period configuration for jobs that vary in runtime
- ✓Works with any backup tool: pg_dump, mysqldump, mongodump, xtrabackup, restic
Start monitoring in 60 seconds
Free tier includes 10 monitors. No credit card required.
$get-started --free