Crontab does not run script?

[fweijers]

Hi
I have got 2 NAS devices and I want to set up a nightly rsync backup from NAS1 to NAS2.

On NAS1 I have the rsync script working fine if I start it from command line.

(> /ffp/bin/snapshotMYBOOKWORLD.sh)

No problems with ssh password etc.

However, if I run the script via a crontab entry, I get rsync errors.
What causes the script to fail?

This is the rsync error I get

20110828_040508
rsync: Failed to exec ssh: No such file or directory (2)
rsync error: error in IPC code (code 14) at pipe.c(84) [sender=3.0.5]
rsync: writefd_unbuffered failed to write 4 bytes [sender]: Broken pipe (32)
rsync error: error in IPC code (code 14) at io.c(1509) [sender=3.0.5]
20110828_040509

This is my crontab:

root@DLINK:~# crontab -l
32 2 * * * /usr/sbin/rtc -s
30 2 2 * * /usr/sbin/rtc -c
59 1 * * * /usr/sbin/daylight &
5 2 * * * /ffp/bin/snapshot.sh
5 2 * * * /ffp/bin/snapshot.sh
5 4 * * * /ffp/bin/snapshotMYBOOKWORLD.sh
root@DLINK:~#

This is the backupscript

root@DLINK:~# ls -l /ffp/bin/snapshotMYBOOKWORLD.sh
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 806 Aug 21 11:56 /ffp/bin/snapshotMYBOOKWORLD.sh

Hope someone can help me!
Regards
Frank

[falko]

Do you use full paths in your script?

[fweijers]

Not sure I use full paths ...

The funny thing is that the script runs fine when started from command line, but not when started via Crontab.

This is the backupscript:

# Set Source Path
# Back up the A drive (HD_a2) by identifying the source path as /mnt/HD_a2
# Back up multiple directories by surrounding a list with single quotes (i.e., s
# srcpath='/mnt/HD_a2/VIDEO /mnt/HD_a2/DOCUMENTEN /mnt/HD_a2/FOTOS /mnt/HD_a2/CO
srcpath='/mnt/HD_a2/DOCUMENTEN /mnt/HD_a2/VIDEO /mnt/HD_a2/FOTOS'

# Set the Destination Path
dstpath=root@192.168.178.100:/shares/internal/BACKUPNAS

ffppath=/ffp

datum=`date "+%Y%m%d_%H%M%S"`
echo $datum >> $ffppath/log/snapshotMYBOOKWORLD.log 2>&1

$ffppath/bin/rsync -av $srcpath $dstpath >> $ffppath/log/snapshotMYBOOKWORLD.log

datum=`date "+%Y%m%d_%H%M%S"`
echo $datum >> $ffppath/log/snapshotMYBOOKWORLD.log 2>&1

[falko]

You could use the full path for the date command (for example /bin/date). You can find that out by running

which date

Do the same for the echo command.

[fweijers]

Got it solved!

The cause was indeed the paths.
I changed the rsync command into this and it works like a charm.

$ffppath/bin/rsync -av -e /ffp/bin/ssh $srcpath $dstpath >> $ffppath/log/snapshotMYBOOKWORLD.log 2>&1

Thanks for the hint!

[fweijers]

By the way, one less important thing i cant explain....

The crontab - l shows this:

root@DLINK:~# crontab -l
32 2 * * * /usr/sbin/rtc -s
30 2 2 * * /usr/sbin/rtc -c
59 1 * * * /usr/sbin/daylight &
5 2 * * * /ffp/bin/snapshot.sh
5 2 * * * /ffp/bin/snapshot.sh
5 4 * * * /ffp/bin/snapshotMYBOOKWORLD.sh

As you can see /ffp/bin/snapshot.sh is started twice ... how can this be?

Crontab is configured using this script:

#!/bin/sh

CRONTXT=/mnt/HD_a2/crontab.txt

# start with existing crontab
/bin/crontab -l > $CRONTXT

# add the Rsync job to execute at 2:00 am
/bin/echo "5 2 * * * /ffp/bin/snapshot.sh" >> $CRONTXT
/bin/echo "5 4 * * * /ffp/bin/snapshotMYBOOKWORLD.sh" >> $CRONTXT

# install the new crontab
/bin/crontab $CRONTXT

# clean up
/bin/rm $CRONTXT

[falko]

Maybe the script was run twice. You can remove one of the two cronjobs by running

crontab -e

[fweijers]

Thanks,

crontab -e gives a kind of vi script which allows to delete one of the entries.

Done deal!

So I've got an rsync backup solution up and runnning to a seperate device, which keeps my data super safe.