Seriously, cron jobs not running.

UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users
1

Before I get a million and one suggestions on all the things that could be wrong with my scripts - let me assure everyone that this is not the issue.

i have a RH EL ES4 server that stopped running all cron jobs except hourly, daily, weekly.

This has affected all users including root. No email is generated and messages shows absolutely nothing in regard to cron job errors. I have pulled out all the cron packages, deleted all the users cron jobs reinstalled the packages and created new jobs and still nothing.

Has anyone run across something like this before?

Although I can't pinpoint the day it stopped working, it seems like it happened just overnight. One day cron jobs were running the next day they just stopped.

Thanks -

2

This may sound stupid but did anything involved with tzset change? TZ settings, update to /etc/localtime link - what tzfile says, etc.

cron is confused timewise.

3

At this point nothing outside the normal sounds dumb, however timezone is still correct - I don't even get jobs to run with * * * * *

4

nothing in /var/spool/cron/tmp, /var/adm/cron/log to give a clue?

5

cron log:

Sep 25 21:24:38 SERV-DELL crontab[3414]: (root) REPLACE (root)
Sep 25 21:24:38 SERV-DELL crontab[3414]: (root) END EDIT (root)
Sep 25 22:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[3436]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
Sep 25 23:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[3440]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
Sep 26 00:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[3459]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)

blah blah blah every hour

Sep 26 04:02:29 SERV-DELL anacron[3922]: Updated timestamp for job `cron.daily' to 2008-09-26
Sep 26 04:03:47 SERV-DELL /usr/bin/crontab[6629]: (root) LIST (test_user)
Sep 26 04:03:47 SERV-DELL /usr/bin/crontab[6631]: (root) REPLACE (test_user)
Sep 26 05:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[6639]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
Sep 26 06:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[6723]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)

blah blah blah every hour

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

RH doesn't have a /var/spool/cron/tmp logging is done to /var/log/cron errors are logged in /var/log/messages or (suposedly) sent to the users e-mail (which in this case there are none).

6

Here is something new:

in roots mail is the Logwatch:

--------------------- Cron Begin ------------------------
Unmatched Entries
Sep 25 00:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[10288]: User account has expired
Sep 25 01:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[10313]: User account has expired
Sep 25 02:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[10338]: User account has expired
Sep 25 03:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[10363]: User account has expired
Sep 25 04:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[10388]: User account has expired
Sep 25 04:02:01 SERV-DELL crond[10389]: User account has expired
Sep 25 05:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[10414]: User account has expired
Sep 25 06:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[10439]: User account has expired
Sep 25 07:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[10464]: User account has expired
Sep 25 08:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[10489]: User account has expired
Sep 25 09:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[10544]: User account has expired
Sep 25 10:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[10569]: User account has expired
Sep 25 11:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[10594]: User account has expired
Sep 25 12:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[10619]: User account has expired
Sep 25 13:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[10644]: User account has expired
Sep 25 14:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[10669]: User account has expired
Sep 25 15:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[10694]: User account has expired
Sep 25 16:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[11278]: User account has expired
Sep 25 17:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[12969]: User account has expired
Sep 25 18:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[14656]: User account has expired
Sep 25 18:52:01 SERV-DELL crond[16086]: User account has expired
Sep 25 19:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[16342]: User account has expired
Sep 25 19:38:01 SERV-DELL crond[16480]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[16537]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:42:01 SERV-DELL crond[16628]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:43:01 SERV-DELL crond[16629]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:44:01 SERV-DELL crond[16630]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:45:01 SERV-DELL crond[16635]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:46:01 SERV-DELL crond[16636]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:47:01 SERV-DELL crond[16637]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:48:01 SERV-DELL crond[16646]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:49:01 SERV-DELL crond[16647]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:50:01 SERV-DELL crond[16649]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:51:01 SERV-DELL crond[16654]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:52:01 SERV-DELL crond[16661]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:52:01 SERV-DELL crond[16662]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:53:01 SERV-DELL crond[16666]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:53:01 SERV-DELL crond[16665]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:54:01 SERV-DELL crond[16668]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:54:01 SERV-DELL crond[16669]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:55:01 SERV-DELL crond[16672]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:55:01 SERV-DELL crond[16673]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:56:01 SERV-DELL crond[16674]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:56:01 SERV-DELL crond[16675]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:57:01 SERV-DELL crond[16676]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:57:01 SERV-DELL crond[16677]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:58:01 SERV-DELL crond[16678]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:58:01 SERV-DELL crond[16679]: User account has expired
STARTUP (V5.0)
Sep 25 20:59:01 SERV-DELL crond[16700]: User account has expired
Sep 25 20:59:01 SERV-DELL crond[16701]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:00:01 SERV-DELL crond[16708]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:00:01 SERV-DELL crond[16709]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[16711]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[16712]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:01:01 SERV-DELL crond[16713]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:02:01 SERV-DELL crond[16714]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:02:01 SERV-DELL crond[16715]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:03:01 SERV-DELL crond[16716]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:03:01 SERV-DELL crond[16717]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:04:01 SERV-DELL crond[16722]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:04:01 SERV-DELL crond[16723]: User account has expired
STARTUP (V5.0)
Sep 25 21:08:01 SERV-DELL crond[3226]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:08:01 SERV-DELL crond[3227]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:09:01 SERV-DELL crond[3270]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:09:01 SERV-DELL crond[3269]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:10:01 SERV-DELL crond[3272]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:10:01 SERV-DELL crond[3273]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:11:01 SERV-DELL crond[3276]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:11:01 SERV-DELL crond[3277]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:12:01 SERV-DELL crond[3281]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:12:01 SERV-DELL crond[3282]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:13:01 SERV-DELL crond[3284]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:13:01 SERV-DELL crond[3285]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:14:01 SERV-DELL crond[3307]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:14:01 SERV-DELL crond[3308]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:15:01 SERV-DELL crond[3310]: User account has expired
Sep 25 21:15:01 SERV-DELL crond[3311]: User account has expired
STARTUP (V5.0)
STARTUP (V5.0)
STARTUP (V5.0)

7

This must have been when I was removing the cron packages and deleting users jobs.

I assume this by the time stamp.

8

Did you lock out root login, just allow sudo or su?