What causes "scheduler crontab expression validation failure: {0}" in apache/dolphinscheduler?

Correct the crontab to valid Quartz format, e.g. '0 0 12 * * ?'.

apache/dolphinscheduler · error · ServiceException

10024

10024

Error message

scheduler crontab expression validation failure: {0}

What it means

updateSchedule validates the crontab in the scheduleExpression with CronUtils.isValidExpression; on failure SCHEDULE_CRON_CHECK_FAILED is thrown including the offending crontab. Unlike error 250 this is a boolean validity check (no exception-based parsing), but the cause is the same: the crontab is not a valid Quartz expression.

Source

Thrown at dolphinscheduler-api/src/main/java/org/apache/dolphinscheduler/api/service/impl/SchedulerServiceImpl.java:567

            ScheduleParam scheduleParam = JSONUtils.parseObject(scheduleExpression, ScheduleParam.class);
            if (scheduleParam == null) {
                log.warn("Parameter scheduleExpression is invalid, so parse cron error.");
                throw new ServiceException(Status.PARSE_TO_CRON_EXPRESSION_ERROR);
            }
            if (DateUtils.differSec(scheduleParam.getStartTime(), scheduleParam.getEndTime()) == 0) {
                log.warn("The start time must not be the same as the end or time can not be null.");
                throw new ServiceException(Status.SCHEDULE_START_TIME_END_TIME_SAME);
            }
            if (scheduleParam.getStartTime().getTime() > scheduleParam.getEndTime().getTime()) {
                log.warn("The start time must smaller than end time");
                throw new ServiceException(Status.START_TIME_BIGGER_THAN_END_TIME_ERROR);
            }

            schedule.setStartTime(scheduleParam.getStartTime());
            schedule.setEndTime(scheduleParam.getEndTime());
            if (!CronUtils.isValidExpression(scheduleParam.getCrontab())) {
                log.error("Schedule crontab verify failure, crontab:{}.", scheduleParam.getCrontab());
                throw new ServiceException(Status.SCHEDULE_CRON_CHECK_FAILED, scheduleParam.getCrontab());
            }
            schedule.setCrontab(scheduleParam.getCrontab());
            validateMissedFirePolicy(scheduleParam);
            if (scheduleParam.isMissedFirePolicySet() && scheduleParam.getMissedFirePolicy() != null) {
                schedule.setMissedFirePolicy(scheduleParam.getMissedFirePolicy());
            }
            schedule.setTimezoneId(scheduleParam.getTimezoneId());
        }

        if (warningType != null) {
            schedule.setWarningType(warningType);
        }

        schedule.setWarningGroupId(warningGroupId);

        if (failureStrategy != null) {
            schedule.setFailureStrategy(failureStrategy);
        }

View on GitHub (pinned to 02eac45a1b)

Solutions

Correct the crontab to valid Quartz format, e.g. '0 0 12 * * ?'.
Run CronUtils.isValidExpression(crontab) (or an online Quartz cron validator) before submitting.
Use '?' in either dayOfMonth or dayOfWeek when the other is constrained.
Migrate Unix cron syntax to Quartz (add seconds field, convert as needed).

Example fix

// before
{"startTime":1700000000000,"endTime":1730000000000,"crontab":"0 12 * *"}   // invalid

// after
{"startTime":1700000000000,"endTime":1730000000000,"crontab":"0 0 12 * * ?"}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (!CronUtils.isValidExpression(scheduleParam.getCrontab())) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid Quartz crontab: " + scheduleParam.getCrontab());
}

Try / catch

try {
    schedulerService.updateSchedule(loginUser, projectCode, id, scheduleExpression, ...);
} catch (ServiceException e) {
    if (e.getCode() == Status.SCHEDULE_CRON_CHECK_FAILED.getCode()) {
        // e.getMessage() contains the offending crontab; fix and resubmit
    }
}

Prevention

Pre-validate crontab with CronUtils.isValidExpression
Use Quartz cron syntax (6-7 fields, seconds first)
Convert Unix 5-field crons before submitting
Use '?' not '*' when constraining dayOfMonth/dayOfWeek separately

When it happens

Trigger: Updating a schedule with a crontab that fails CronUtils.isValidExpression: wrong field count, illegal characters, out-of-range day/month values, or unsupported syntax.

Common situations: 5-field Unix cron pasted into the API; '?' vs '*' misuse; day-of-month + day-of-week both set to '*' conflicting semantics users expect; empty crontab string.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of apache/dolphinscheduler@02eac45a1b (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a09cb3afedb1bd5c. Report an issue: GitHub.