I have a computer that I would like to backup the home directory onto a server. I created a script called wien_backup.sh that contains the following:

#!/bin/bash -l
/usr/bin/rsync -rv --delete-after --ignore-errors -e /usr/bin/ssh root@wngr403-unix2:/home/ /space/systemimager/Wien/

where wngr403-unix2 is the computer I am backing up, and the script is ran from the server. If I run the script by itself, it works just fine. If I run it as a cronjob, the /var/log/syslog says it ran, but it does nothing.

Any help is appreciated.

Jason

change #!/bin/bash -l to #!/bin/bash -x

and add a > /root/tmp.out to your crontab command so we can see what it is erroring on.

I did what you said and the /root/tmp.out is empty. Here is how it is listed when I run crontab -l

13 9 * * * /root/bin/wien_backup.sh > /root/tmp.out

And it shows this in the /var/log/syslog file

Mar 28 09:13:01 physics-server /USR/SBIN/CRON[24499]: (root) CMD (/root/bin/wien_backup.sh > /root/tmp.out)

Check permissions & ownership - cronjobs don't always run with root privileges.

This confirms that the cron job has been executed, since redirection causes the shell to create an empty file and to open the related file descriptor. Then the command is executed and the log file is populated. Since rsync uses the -v option, you should see something in the log file. This means that the rsync command has not been executed for some reason. Most likely the script lacks the execution permissions, as already suggested.

I believe my problem is with ssh itself. I tried the following script that tells me who is logged in to each machine.

#!/bin/bash

for i in `seq 1 9`;
do
ssh wngr412-pc0$i.physics.oregonstate.edu "uname -n;last | grep logged | grep -v root"
done

for j in `seq 10 26`;
do
ssh wngr412-pc$j.physics.oregonstate.edu "uname -n;last | grep logged | grep -v root"
done


for k in `seq 1 9`;
do
ssh wngr497-pc0$k.physics.oregonstate.edu "uname -n; last | grep logged | grep -v root"
done

i=3
ssh wngr40$i-unix2.physics.oregonstate.edu "uname -n; last | grep logged | grep -v root"

exit 0

If I run it by itself I get the following output

wngr412-pc01.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc02.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc03.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc04.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc05.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc06.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc07.physics.oregonstate.edu
ssh: connect to host wngr412-pc08.physics.oregonstate.edu port 22: No route to host
wngr412-pc09.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc10.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc11.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc12.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc13.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc14.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc15.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc16.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc17.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc18.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc19.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc20.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc21.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc22.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc23.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc24.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc25.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc26.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr497-pc01.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr497-pc02.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr497-pc03.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr497-pc04.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr497-pc05.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr497-pc06.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr497-pc07.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr497-pc08.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr497-pc09.physics.oregonstate.edu
vielmaj pts/0 slide.physics.or Mon Mar 28 10:22 still logged in
wngr403-unix2
janet pts/4 wngr485-mac2.sci Mon Mar 28 09:53 still logged in
vielmaj pts/3 slide.physics.or Mon Mar 28 08:05 still logged in

But, if I run it as a cronjob, I get the following

wngr412-pc01.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc02.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc03.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc04.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc05.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc06.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc07.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc09.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc10.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc11.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc12.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc13.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc14.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc15.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc16.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc17.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc18.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc19.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc20.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc21.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc22.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc23.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc24.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc25.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr412-pc26.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr497-pc01.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr497-pc02.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr497-pc03.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr497-pc04.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr497-pc05.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr497-pc06.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr497-pc07.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr497-pc08.physics.oregonstate.edu
wngr497-pc09.physics.oregonstate.edu
vielmaj pts/0 slide.physics.or Mon Mar 28 10:22 still logged in

Thanks everyone for their help. I figured out the problem.

When I created the ssh-key for passwordless logins to machine wngr403-unix2, I created it while being logged in to the server from a remote hosts. The key in /root/.ssh/authorized_keys ended with abacus.physics.oregonstate.edu instead of root@physics-server.physics.oregonstate.edu. Once I created the ssh key from the server itself, the script worked.