1. Create " MDL-71136 " course. 2. Set Automated backup to manual: php admin/cli/cfg.php --component=backup --name=backup_auto_active --set= 2 3. Set the schedule: php admin/cli/cfg.php --component=backup --name=backup_auto_weekdays --set= '1111111' 4. Set execute time: php admin/cli/cfg.php --component=backup --name=backup_auto_hour --set= 1 5. Generate mdl_backup_courses records: php admin/cli/automated_backups.php 6. Update nextstarttime: Postgres: update mdl_backup_courses set nextstarttime = round(extract(epoch from now())); MySQL: update mdl_backup_courses set nextstarttime = UNIX_TIMESTAMP(); 7. Generate ad-hoc task: php admin/cli/automated_backups.php 8. Confirm , that ad-hoc task was created: select classname, nextruntime, faildelay, customdata from mdl_task_adhoc where classname = '\core\task\course_backup_task' ; 9. Delete the course " MDL-71136 ": 10. Run cron: php admin/cli/cron.php 8. Confirm , that cron log has correct exception and looks like: Scheduled task complete: Background processing for scheduled allocation (workshopallocation_scheduled\task\cron_task) Execute adhoc task: core\task\course_backup_task ... started 03 : 26 : 52 . Current memory use 42 .5MB. Invalid course id: 3 , task aborted. ... used 1 dbqueries ... used 0.00081300735473633 seconds Adhoc task complete: core\task\course_backup_task   9. Run SQL: select classname, nextruntime, faildelay, customdata from mdl_task_adhoc where classname = '\core\task\course_backup_task' ; 10. Confirm , that ad-hoc task has been finished (so the previous query return no rows).