What it is
Saturn is distributed job scheduling platform. Created by VIP.com. Java based. Apache-2.0 licensed. GitHub shows 2305 stars, 686 forks, last push 2025-11-12. It is listed under business software scheduling and event management. Repository age is 10 years. Lives in open-source Java scheduling ecosystem. Provides fault tolerant and high available job scheduling service. Targets time based jobs across many machines.
Problem it solves is repeated job execution in distributed systems. It addresses need for fault tolerant and high available scheduling. Jobs need scheduling, sharding, failover, monitoring, and management. Saturn gives web based management and load based allocation. Supports second level timing and parallel subtask scheduling. Built for large scale daily scheduling, with claim of billion times per day tested. Originated from Dangdang's elastic-job and enhanced for VIP.com requirements.
Key capabilities
- Time based job scheduling, with language unrestricted job execution.
- Parallel subtask, or shard, scheduling for jobs split across workers.
- One-second-level scheduling support for frequent tasks.
- Intelligent load based job allocation across nodes.
- Fail detection and failover support for worker or job failure.
- Web based management, statistical data visualization, and all-around monitoring.
- Multi-active cluster deployment and container friendly operation.
Who uses it and how
- VIP.com created Saturn for own job scheduling needs.
- Other organizations listed in project wiki, with case image in README, use Saturn in production or internal systems.
- Teams use it to run scheduled batch jobs, periodic services, and sharded workloads across clusters.
- Operators use web console to create, monitor, and troubleshoot jobs.
- Container users deploy Saturn with Docker-based quick start or production instructions.
Getting started
Typical path is clone repo, ensure Java 7+, Maven 3.0.4+, node.js 8.7.0+, npm 5.4.2+, and git, then run saturn-docker quickstart.sh or use Docker Compose. Production deployment requires following Saturn console deployment documentation, because quick start is for demo only; release 3.3.1 is latest stable, while develop branch offers newer changes.
When to use it — and when not to
Use Saturn when need self-managed distributed scheduling with sharding, failover, web management, and container support. Avoid when want hosted service, minimal operations, or modern Java baseline without older toolchain dependencies. Quick start is demo only, repository has 279 open issues, and Apache-2.0 license gives permissive terms, but self-hosting still requires production setup and operations.
project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline
Saturn is a platform created by VIP.com(唯品会) to provide a distributed, fault tolerant and high available job scheduling service.
Why Saturn?
- Time based and language unrestricted job
- Easy job implmentation and web based management
- Parallel subtask(shard) scheduling
- 1-second-level scheduling supported
- Intelligent load based job allocation
- Fail detection & failover support
- Statistical data visualization
- All-around monitoring and easy troubleshooting
- Multi-active cluster deployment support
- Container friendly
- Stand the test of billion times scheduling per day
- and more
Quick Start 快速安装
Make sure below stuff already been installed：
- Java 7+
- Maven 3.0.4+
- node.js 8.7.0+
- npm 5.4.2+
- git (any version)
Then checkout the code and start:
git clone https://github.com/vipshop/Saturn
git checkout develop
cd saturn-docker
# for linux
chmod +x quickstart.sh
sh quickstart.sh
# for MS Windows
# quickstart.bat
Or you can quick start via docker compose
To notice that the quick start just for demo purpose, for production environement, please follow this instruction.
Releases 发布历史
Release notes
3.3.1 is the latest stable release, or checkout the develop branch to try something new and cool.
Documents & Tutorials 文档与教程
Please go to https://vipshop.github.io/Saturn for reading the documents of 3.0.
For the document of 2.x, please come here.
The team 开发团队
About us
Cases 使用案例
Organizations using Saturn
使用Saturn的公司如果方便请在这里留下公司+网址，方便我们宣传，感谢
Getting help, and helping out 社区互助
WeChat Group: Please add group owner viptech128 (备注"saturn") to join us!
Special thanks 特别鸣谢
Saturn is originated from Dangdang's elastic job, we enhance it according to our requirement and understandings. Special thanks to Zhang Liang@dangdang who give us a lot of help and suggestions.