Why need a random sleep in cron for certbot?

Hi.
I use certbot for auto renew my certificates.
And in the cron task I noticed “random slep”:
0 */12 * * * test -x /usr/bin/certbot -a \! -d /run/systemd/system && perl -e 'sleep int(rand(43200))' && certbot -q renew
Can anyone explain me why need this random slep?

Hi @perrfect

the answer is simple.

It's not a good idea if 1000 clients start to create a certificate on 00:00, 01:00 etc.

So a random sleep is added.

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If not, there exists the potential for thousands, if not millions, of systems to attempt to renew at the exact same time.
[creates a self-imposed denial of service - twice a day - or at the top of each hour - many time zones]

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Thank you so much for your reply

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