[jaxisland]

So I have a shell script that I need to run on a schedule. Manually running the file works so I know that part is fine. What Im having problems with is getting a cron job to run it.

So I have typed: crontab -e
Here is the contents:
# m h dom mon dow command
23 16 * * * /home/bob/Desktop/stopvm.sh

Right now I am trying to test the file so I used * * * so it is suppose to run everyday all year. I set the the time to 4:23 pm but I just change the time to 2 minutes ahead so I can test it. Nothing happens at the specified time. I am looking for someone to walk me through getting this running.

Thanks

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Mind posting the script? Some things in scripts don't run correctly in cron like they do in manual runs.

[Titan8990]

Mind posting the script? Some things in scripts don't run correctly in cron like they do in manual runs.

[jaxisland]

#!/bin/sh
cd /usr/bin
vmware-cmd -H 192.168.34.3 --username root --password password1 /vmfs/volumes/Temp/XPTemp/XPTemp.vmx start soft

This is for starting a VM in ESXi. I also have a stop one as well. I cannot get either to run automatically.

[jaxisland]

Alright I finally figured it out.
First step is to create a file, I made mine in /home/bob
I named it crontab_file
I added the entries like:
* * * * * sh /home/bob/Desktop/stopvm

Closed the file and ran:
sudo crontab -u bob crontab_file

I verifed it was listed by using:
crontab -l

After that it ran every minute like it was suppose to. From here I am changing the schedule to something less frequent but at least its working.

[Titan8990]

So it was the addition of the interpreter in your cron job? Was your shebang not being read correctly?

[jaxisland]

3 things I did wrong:
1) i tried using crontab -e instead of creating the file and using the crontab command
2) i didnt put the "sh" in front of the path
3) cron does not like file extensions so i removed the".sh" from my file name

Oh and FYI for anyone, Ubuntu 8.10 and VMWare Remote CLI are not compatible. There are major issues with Perl. I just had to redo my ubuntu box after the upgrade. So just something if anyone comes across it. I will be using a test virtual machine before I do any major upgrades, you know like your suppose to


Crazy stuff, it works so good though. Im definitely a happy camper. Thanks for the help.

[Titan8990]

Good to hear you got it fixed. I have not ran in to any issues with .sh file extensions or cron -e but whatever works.


One thing that I have found with cron scripts is they usually do not like the "cd" command. It is considered good practice to always use absolute paths. So instead of:

cd /usr/bin
vmware-cmd -H 192.168.34.3 --username root --password password1 /vmfs/volumes/Temp/XPTemp/XPTemp.vmx start soft

You would do:

/usr/bin/vmware-cmd -H 192.168.34.3 --username root --password password1 /vmfs/volumes/Temp/XPTemp/XPTemp.vmx start sof

However, this is not needed in this particular case because /usr/bin is in everyone's default PATH variable:

jordan@bourne:~$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games

root@bourne:~# echo $PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin

Just in case you say anything I did not unlock my root accnt, I used sudo -i.

[jaxisland]

Thats a good tip. Im going to change it anyways, too many years in windows administration. Thanks again!