How to trouble shoot cron jobs ?

bowie101 · 01-26-2006, 09:42 AM

Newbie here asking a question on behalf of a non-newbie who is stuck :

On Red Hat Enterprise Server, the cron job isn't working. what / how do you suggest we troublshoot it? anyone know why it may not be working?

not working, as in, it won't run. If the script is run manually, it will run.

bmeckle · 01-26-2006, 10:48 AM

Check the permissions and make sure that the user is allowed to use cron. That would be the first place to start.

bowie101 · 01-26-2006, 11:27 AM

logged in as root.

OK, here are the environmental variables, first :

Code:

TOMCAT_HOME=/srvrs/tomcat-5.5.7
HOSTNAME=foo1.foo2.foo3
SHELL=/bin/bash
TERM=xterm
HISTSIZE=1000
CVSROOT=:ext:root@foo1.foo2.foo3:/srvrs/cvsroot
ANT_HOME=/usr/ant-1.6.2
USER=root
LS_COLORS=no=00:fi=00:di=00;34:ln=00;36:pi=40;33:so=00;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:or=01;05;37;41:mi=01;05;37;41:ex=00;32:*.cmd=00;32:*.exe=00;32:*.com=00;32:*.btm=00;32:*.bat=00;32:*.sh=00;32:*.csh=00;32:*.tar=00;31:*.tgz=00;31:*.arj=00;31:*.taz=00;31:*.lzh=00;31:*.zip=00;31:*.z=00;31:*.Z=00;31:*.gz=00;31:*.bz2=00;31:*.bz=00;31:*.tz=00;31:*.rpm=00;31:*.cpio=00;31:*.jpg=00;35:*.gif=00;35:*.bmp=00;35:*.xbm=00;35:*.xpm=00;35:*.png=00;35:*.tif=00;35:
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/oracle/OraHome1/lib:.
USERNAME=root
TNS_ADMIN=/home/oracle/OraHome1/nework/admin/tnsnames.ora
MAIL=/var/spool/mail/root
PATH=/usr/kerberos/sbin:/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/local/bin:/home/oracle/OraHome1/bin:/usr/java/jdk1.5.0_01/bin:/usr/ant-1.6.2/bin:/usr/local/pgsql/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/X11R6/bin:/root/bin
INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc
PWD=/home/production/perl/amp-stamp
JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jdk1.5.0_01
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SSH_ASKPASS=/usr/libexec/openssh/gnome-ssh-askpass
XERCESCROOT=/opt/xerces-c-src_2_5_0
SHLVL=1
HOME=/root
LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.4.19
BASH_ENV=/root/.bashrc
LOGNAME=root
CVS_RSH=/usr/bin/ssh
LC_CTYPE=en_US
LESSOPEN=|/usr/bin/lesspipe.sh %s
DISPLAY=localhost:10.0
ORACLE_HOME=/home/oracle/OraHome1
G_BROKEN_FILENAMES=1
XAUTHORITY=/root/.xauthuCQzMt
_=/bin/env
OLDPWD=/home/production/perl

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are the 2 scripts that won't run in cron :

1)

Code:

 
#!/bin/sh
 
cd /home/production/perl/amp-stamp
./loadnew >>amp-stamp.log

2)

Code:

 
#!/bin/sh
 
/home/production/ruby/guardcard/guardcardproto.rb

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

and here's the error message that was emailed to root :

Code:

 
error  message by email as follow:    From root@foo1.foo2.foo3  Thu Jan 26 10:24:01 2006  Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 10:24:01 -0500  From: root@dfoo1.foo2.foo3 (Cron Daemon)  To: root@foo1.foo2.foo3 

Subject: Cron <root@foo1>  /home/production/perl/amp-stamp/loadplans.sh  X-Cron-Env: <SHELL=/bin/sh>  X-Cron-Env: <HOME=/root>  X-Cron-Env: <PATH=/usr/bin:/bin>  X-Cron-Env: <LOGNAME=root>     DBI connect('OG,'DS',...) failed: ERROR  OCIEnvNlsCreate (check ORACLE_HOME and NLS settings  etc.) at ./loadnew line  9  

Can't call method "prepare" on an undefined value at  ./loadnew line 10.         

 From root@foo1.foo2.foo3  

Thu Jan 26 10:40:00 2006  Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 10:40:00 -0500  From: root@foo1.foo2.foo3 (Cron Daemon)  To: root@foo1.foo2.foo3  Subject: Cron <root@foo1> /root/runscript.sh  X-Cron-Env: <SHELL=/bin/sh>  X-Cron-Env: <HOME=/root>  X-Cron-Env: <PATH=/usr/bin:/bin>  X-Cron-Env: <LOGNAME=root>     

Error code  

Error Message ERROR

---------------------------------------------------------------------

like i said, if it is run manually, it works.

marozsas · 01-26-2006, 11:34 AM

Pay attention to the first error message that shows in the e-mailed message. it says: check ORACLE_HOME. cron jobs not run with all environmental variables set. Check the manual page about this. As a workaround you may set ORACLE_HOME=/home/oracle/OraHome1 at the beginning of your scripts. Others variables may be need too. Check one at time. regards,

As a rule-of-thumb, shell scripts, including those that run by cron, must do not rely on any external dependencies , including those are set in rc scripts as .basrc or whatever.
They must be self-contained as much is possible, as this increase the security.
They also not be overloaded with unnecessary settings, like prompt, history, ,PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH with paths not used by that specific script/application.
Is a big mistake doing something like that at the beginning of yours scripts: ". ~/.basrc" to force the setting of all environmental variables you have in a interactive session. Please, don't do that, ever.