Crontab changed?

Mischa · 09-17-2008, 07:19 AM

I've successfully been running a crontab script to backup virtual machines on our VMware ESX servers for a while now.
But recently we've upgraded from ESX 3.02 to the new 3.5 version.
I've copied the content of my crontab to the new machines, but now it doesn't seem to work anymore.

What it should do:
I want to run 8 different scripts.
Every saturday where the day of the month is 1,2,3,4,5,6 or 7 I want to run a script at 8:59 and another at 10:59

The following script did that for me, but since I've upgraded, the script seems to run every day!

Is something changed in a new version of crontab?
Is there a solution for this problem?

Code:

# Maandelijkse backups
59 8 1-7 * 6 /usr/local/bin/vmbk.pl -C /root/Scripts/maandelijks/maand1_za1.conf > /dev/null 2>&1
59 10 1-7 * 6 /usr/local/bin/vmbk.pl -C /root/Scripts/maandelijks/maand1_za2.conf > /dev/null 2>&1
59 8 8-14 * 6 /usr/local/bin/vmbk.pl -C /root/Scripts/maandelijks/maand2_za1.conf > /dev/null 2>&1
59 10 8-14 * 6 /usr/local/bin/vmbk.pl -C /root/Scripts/maandelijks/maand2_za2.conf > /dev/null 2>&1
59 8 15-21 * 6 /usr/local/bin/vmbk.pl -C /root/Scripts/maandelijks/maand3_za1.conf > /dev/null 2>&1
59 10 15-21 * 6 /usr/local/bin/vmbk.pl -C /root/Scripts/maandelijks/maand3_za2.conf > /dev/null 2>&1
59 8 22-27 * 6 /usr/local/bin/vmbk.pl -C /root/Scripts/maandelijks/maand4_za1.conf > /dev/null 2>&1
59 10 22-27 * 6 /usr/local/bin/vmbk.pl -C /root/Scripts/maandelijks/maand4_za2.conf > /dev/null 2>&1

chrism01 · 09-17-2008, 09:07 PM

Have you seen this: http://www.adminschoice.com/docs/cro...Crontab%20file
Anyway, the first 2 entries you've got do what you want. The rest extend that to every Saturday, for every day of the mth up to 27th, which is not what you say you want.

Mischa · 09-18-2008, 02:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrism01

Have you seen this: http://www.adminschoice.com/docs/cro...Crontab%20file
Anyway, the first 2 entries you've got do what you want. The rest extend that to every Saturday, for every day of the mth up to 27th, which is not what you say you want.

Oh, sorry!
I want to run two other scripts the 8th until the 15th.
Two others 16th - 21th every month and the last two the 22th - 29th
every month.
All of them only on saturdays.

I've seen how the crontab should work, but the scripts seem to run every day (when the day of the month is in between the set limit) instead of only on saturdays.

Any other suggestions.

chrism01 · 09-18-2008, 02:44 AM

Well, I'd start by commenting out all of those except one eg first, so we can narrow down the possibilities.
Then double check the files created etc to ensure that it really is happening every day. eg just before its due to run, start top in an xterm and watch it. Its entirely possible its being run by another crontab.
I'd also change the names of the progs, at the moment you've got the same prog in every entry.
You might even need to read the perl prog to see what its doing.