The Maintenance plugin includes a powerful timer system that can automatically enable or disable maintenance mode after a specified duration, with automatic broadcasts to warn players.
Timer Commands
Start Timer
Schedule maintenance mode to be enabled after a specific duration:
# Enable maintenance in 30 minutes
/maintenance starttimer 30m
# Enable maintenance in 2 hours
/maintenance starttimer 2h
# Enable maintenance in 90 seconds
/maintenance starttimer 90s
# Enable maintenance in 2 hours and 30 minutes
/maintenance starttimer 2h30m
End Timer
Schedule maintenance mode to be disabled after a specific duration:
# Disable maintenance in 1 hour
/maintenance endtimer 1h
# Disable maintenance in 45 minutes
/maintenance endtimer 45m
# Disable maintenance in 30 seconds
/maintenance endtimer 30s
Abort Timer
Cancel a currently running timer:
# Cancel any active timer
/maintenance aborttimer
Schedule Timer
Combine start and end timers into a scheduled maintenance window:
# Enable maintenance in 1 hour, then disable it 30 minutes later
/maintenance scheduletimer 1h 30m
# Enable maintenance in 30 minutes, then disable it 2 hours later
/maintenance scheduletimer 30m 2h
The schedule command takes two durations: the first is when to enable maintenance, and the second is how long maintenance should last.
Single Units
/maintenance endtimer 30 # 30 minutes (default when only a number)
/maintenance endtimer 30m # 30 minutes (explicit)
/maintenance endtimer 2h # 2 hours
/maintenance endtimer 90s # 90 seconds
Combined Units
/maintenance endtimer 2h30m # 2 hours and 30 minutes
/maintenance endtimer 1h45m # 1 hour and 45 minutes
/maintenance endtimer 90m30s # 90 minutes and 30 seconds
/maintenance endtimer PT2H30M # 2 hours and 30 minutes
/maintenance endtimer PT1H # 1 hour
/maintenance endtimer PT30M # 30 minutes
Timers have a maximum duration to prevent extremely long tasks. Attempting to set a timer beyond this limit will result in an error.
Broadcast Intervals
When a timer is running, the plugin automatically broadcasts warnings to players at configured intervals. Configure these intervals in config.yml:
# If using the timer command: In what intervalls before enabling/disabling maintenance there will be a broadcast.
timer-broadcast-for-seconds: [1200, 900, 600, 300, 120, 60, 30, 20, 10, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1]
- 20 minutes (1200s)
- 15 minutes (900s)
- 10 minutes (600s)
- 5 minutes (300s)
- 2 minutes (120s)
- 1 minute (60s)
- 30 seconds
- 20 seconds
- 10, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 seconds
Customizing Broadcast Intervals
You can customize when broadcasts occur:
# Broadcast only at major intervals
timer-broadcast-for-seconds: [3600, 1800, 600, 300, 60, 30, 10, 5, 1]
# Broadcast more frequently near the end
timer-broadcast-for-seconds: [600, 300, 120, 60, 45, 30, 15, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1]
# Simple intervals every 5 minutes
timer-broadcast-for-seconds: [1500, 1200, 900, 600, 300, 60, 30, 10]
Broadcast intervals are specified in seconds. To add a 25-minute warning, use 1500 (25 × 60 = 1500).
Timer Persistence
Timers can persist across server restarts, so if your server crashes or restarts while a timer is running, it will continue when the server comes back online.
Configuration
# If enabled and the server is restarted while running an endtimer, the timer will be continued after the restart.
# If the timer ends while the server is offline, maintenance will be disabled as soon as the server starts again.
continue-endtimer-after-restart:
enabled: false
# This value is set everytime an endtimer is started, cancelled or ended.
# Do not manually change this value.
end: 0
Enable timer persistence
Set enabled: true under continue-endtimer-after-restart in config.yml.
Start a timer
Run /maintenance endtimer 2h or any timer command.
Restart the server
The plugin saves the timer’s end time to the config automatically.
Timer resumes after restart
When the server starts, the plugin checks if the timer has finished and resumes or completes it accordingly.
How It Works
- Timer starts: The end timestamp is saved to
config.yml
- Server restarts: The plugin reads the saved timestamp
- Time remaining calculated: If time remains, the timer continues
- Timer expired offline: If the timer ended during downtime, maintenance is toggled immediately
- Timer completes: The saved timestamp is reset to
0
Only endtimers (timers that disable maintenance) are persisted. Start timers and schedule timers are not saved across restarts to prevent unintended maintenance enabling during outages.
Proxy Mode Timers
On BungeeCord and Velocity, you can run timers for individual backend servers:
# Enable maintenance on 'survival' server in 1 hour
/maintenance starttimer survival 1h
# Disable maintenance on 'creative' server in 30 minutes
/maintenance endtimer creative 30m
# Schedule maintenance on 'minigames' server
/maintenance scheduletimer minigames 2h 1h
Timer Display
The %TIMER% placeholder shows the remaining time in a human-readable format:
In MOTD Messages
ping-message:
enable-timer-specific-messages: true
timer-messages:
- "<red>Maintenance ends in: <yellow>%TIMER%"
In Broadcast Messages
Customize timer broadcast messages in your language file:
endtimerBroadcast: "<prefix><yellow>Maintenance will be disabled in <green>%TIME%<yellow>!"
starttimerBroadcast: "<prefix><yellow>Maintenance will be enabled in <red>%TIME%<yellow>!"
Use Cases
Scheduled Maintenance Window
# Announce maintenance starting in 2 hours, lasting 1 hour
/maintenance scheduletimer 2h 1h
- Broadcast warnings at configured intervals for 2 hours
- Enable maintenance automatically after 2 hours
- Broadcast countdown messages for 1 hour
- Disable maintenance automatically after 1 hour
Quick Restart Warning
# Warn players before a 5-minute restart
/maintenance starttimer 5m
# Then manually restart after timer ends
Temporary Maintenance
# Enable maintenance now for 30 minutes
/maintenance on
/maintenance endtimer 30m
Advance Notice
# Give players 1 hour notice before maintenance
/maintenance starttimer 1h
Permissions
| Permission | Description |
|---|
maintenance.timer | Use timer commands (starttimer, endtimer, aborttimer) |
maintenance.singleserver.timer | Use timer commands for individual servers (proxy mode) |
Example Workflow
Announce scheduled maintenance
# Schedule maintenance to start in 1 hour and last 30 minutes
/maintenance scheduletimer 1h 30m
Automatic broadcasts begin
Players receive warnings at: 20m, 15m, 10m, 5m, 2m, 1m, 30s, etc.
Maintenance enables automatically
After 1 hour, maintenance mode activates and players are kicked (unless whitelisted).
Countdown broadcasts continue
During the 30-minute maintenance window, broadcasts show time remaining.
Maintenance disables automatically
After 30 minutes, maintenance mode ends and players can rejoin.