Scheduling Recurrent Scans
Recurrent Scans allow you to set up automated scanning routines to execute at predefined intervals on specified days. With flexible scheduling options, including selecting the preferred day of the month and defining the frequency of recurrence, you can tailor the scanning pattern to your specific requirements.
How to schedule Recurrent Scans
- From the Acunetix header, click New Scan.
- Using the checkboxes, select the Targets you would like to scan.
- Click Scan in the upper right-hand corner. You are now able to configure the scans.
- In the Choose Scanning Options window, select your preferred Scan Profile and Report. For more information, refer to Default Scan profiles, and Types of Acunetix reports documents.
- In the Schedule dropdown, select Recurrent Scan to establish a recurrent scan schedule.
- Use the dropdown menu to select the Frequency of the scan (options are daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, or custom).
- Specify the desired Start date of the scan by clicking the calendar icon.
- Optionally, select the Time Sensitive checkbox to specify the precise start time for the scan. However, ensure that these do not conflict with any Excluded Hours that may have been put into place beforehand.
- Select the I confirm that I am fully authorised to scan the selected target checkbox and click Create Scan. The scan will commence at the set date and time and will be repeated according to the set schedule.
- The scheduled scan will be available in the Scans menu, showing the day and time they will start.
Custom scan schedule example
The custom option (under Frequency) enables you to tailor the scanning schedule according to your specific requirements.
For example, if you wish to conduct a biweekly scan on two specific days, such as Mondays and Thursdays, you can utilize the custom settings to define this pattern accurately. This is how the Choose Scanning Options window would be populated in Acunetix.
- This can be altered to have a scan run every week, twice a week, every 3 months, or every 5 years.
Alternative scan schedule options
If you don't want to run a Recurrent scan, the following alternative scan schedule options are available:
- Future scan: allows you to plan a scan for a specific date and time in advance
- Instant scan: provides a quick and efficient way to detect and address potential vulnerabilities in real-time
- Continuous scan: conducts daily scans to identify and report any newly discovered vulnerabilities plus a weekly full scan
- Incremental scan: selectively scans only newly discovered or modified pages