cron not running

grob115 · 06-15-2011, 12:01 PM

Hi, cron on one of my boxes isn't running and I failed to determine why. Here are what I have found so far:

[backup@db mysql_backup]$ date
Wed Jun 15 09:04:06 PDT 2011
[backup@db mysql_backup]$ crontab -e
crontab: installing new crontab
[backup@db mysql_backup]$ crontab -l
6 9 * * * /home/backup/scripts/mysql_backup.sh > /home/backup/scripts/mysql_backup.log
[backup@db mysql_backup]$ date
Wed Jun 15 09:04:29 PDT 2011
[backup@db mysql_backup]$ su
Password:
[root@db mysql_backup]# tail -f /var/log/cron
Jun 15 09:04:15 db crontab[16778]: (backup) BEGIN EDIT (backup)
Jun 15 09:04:23 db crontab[16778]: (backup) REPLACE (backup)
Jun 15 09:04:23 db crontab[16778]: (backup) END EDIT (backup)
Jun 15 09:04:27 db crontab[16780]: (backup) LIST (backup)
Jun 15 09:05:01 db crond[2739]: (backup) RELOAD (cron/backup)

colucix · 06-15-2011, 12:05 PM

Apparently there is no problem in the crontab entry. The only thing coming in mind is that when you edit the crontab you have to put a time specification which is at least two minutes after the current time: as you can see from the cron.log at 4:29 the cron daemon has reloaded the crontab, but it will not execute the crontab entry until 4:29 on the next day. If you edit the crontab at 4:28 you have to set the job at 4:30 in order to run it (almost) immediately.

musammil123 · 06-15-2011, 01:23 PM

Hi
Whether cron functionality is not running your server or particular this cron entry is not running.?
If this particular cron is not running kindly check with simple cron entry.

Below urls are cronjobs reference sites.

http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2009/06/...ntab-examples/
http://adminschoice.com/crontab-quick-reference

Thanks
Mohamed

grob115 · 06-16-2011, 12:16 PM

colucix, thanks. However, from what I can see in the cron log is that at 09:05 the cron has been reloaded. Now if the job is set to run at 09:06, it should run the minute after it reloaded but it doesn't.

Now the most interesting thing is that it did run the day after but not at the scheduled time. I have since scheduled it to run at 04:00 but it ended up running at 01:00 as per the log. I'm totally lost on this one but will monitor it for another day to see.

lithos · 06-16-2011, 06:51 PM

hi,

as I can see you put your cron for user [backup@db mysql_backup]
try put it as 'root' and see what happens

sang_froid · 06-17-2011, 10:07 AM

What is the permission and ownership of the file mysql_backup.sh ?

Also, to take mysqlbackup, you will need to specify the root password of mysql in that script. Have you specified the root password in that script ?

grob115 · 06-17-2011, 12:13 PM

Hello, thanks for replying. The backup actually works and I get a dump daily. It's just that the time when it executes doesn't match the time set in the cron. Think the following explains it all. It's actually a cron for the user "backup".

Code:

[backup@db mysql_backup]$ crontab -l
0 4 * * * /home/backup/scripts/mysql_db_backup.sh > /home/backup/scripts/mysql_db_backup.log
[backup@db mysql_backup]$ su
Password:
[root@db mysql_backup]# tail -n17 /var/log/cron
Jun 16 23:01:01 db crond[22337]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
Jun 17 00:01:01 db crond[22468]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
Jun 17 01:00:01 db crond[22597]: (backup) CMD (/home/backup/scripts/mysql_db_backup.sh > /home/backup/scripts/mysql_db_backup.log)
Jun 17 01:01:01 db crond[22614]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
Jun 17 01:02:01 db crond[22621]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.daily)
Jun 17 01:02:03 db anacron[22625]: Updated timestamp for job `cron.daily' to 2011-06-17
Jun 17 02:01:01 db crond[23225]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
Jun 17 03:01:01 db crond[23356]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
Jun 17 04:01:01 db crond[23487]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
Jun 17 05:01:01 db crond[23620]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
Jun 17 06:01:01 db crond[23751]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
Jun 17 07:01:01 db crond[23882]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
Jun 17 08:01:01 db crond[24011]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
Jun 17 09:01:01 db crond[24179]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
Jun 17 09:03:32 db crontab[24277]: (backup) LIST (backup)
Jun 17 09:05:02 db crontab[24325]: (root) LIST (root)
Jun 17 09:09:37 db crontab[24360]: (backup) LIST (backup)