NAME
runcronjobs - centralized cron jobs processor
SYNOPSIS
runcronjobs options directory
DESCRIPTION
"runcronjobs" processes the execution of centralized cron jobs for a
pool of servers.
The cron jobs are any executable files (scripts and binaries).
"runcronjobs" runs cronjobs located in a given directory if the current
host is specified as a target host for this jobs (see directives
bellow). This allows to centralize all the cron jobs of a set of servers
in a common shared directory.
FEATURES
- notification by mail on each invocation
The mail report begins with a global summary for all the jobs :
timestamp of the begin of execution, timestamp of the end, elapsed
time, return code, following by the output of each of them (and
optionnal additionnal informations).
- capabilities of parallelization for jobs executions
- optionnal delay before execution
COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS
The command line arguments are :
-v --verbose : verbose level
-d --debug : debug level
-n --dry-run : dry run, don't execute jobs
-f --foreground : jobs are no threaded
--no-sleep : sleep directives are ignored
--no-mail : don't send mail
-h *hostname* : simule execution from this host
-c *config_file* : use an alternate configuration file (default is
"runcronjobs.conf" located in the executable directory or, if not found,
in /etc)
JOB DIRECTIVES
Somme directives can be insered anywhere into the jobs. They allow to
control the behaviour of "runcronjobs".
A directive is a line containing the string _runcronjobs_. The begin of
the line (before _runcronjobs_) is ignored, and the rest (after
_runcronjobs_) is parsed. So, the directive can be located for example
in a comment or a string constant, depending of the language using by
the job. A # in a directive begins a comment.
For exemple,
# _runcronjobs_ server1 server2(detach=1) @group1 # my comment
can be a directive line in a shell or perl job.
The syntax of the directive is one or more specifications following the
_runcronjobs_ tag, each specification delimited by white spaces :
_runcronjobs_ spec1 spec2 spec3...
Specifications
Specifications are :
hostname :
adds a target host for this jobs.
hostname(arg1=val1,arg2=val2,...) :
adds a target host for this jobs, and specifies some valued
arguments for this host
@group :
adds a group of target hosts for this jobs. This group must be
defined in the configuration file
@group(arg1=val1,arg2=val2,...) :
adds a group of target hosts for this jobs, and specifies some
valued arguments for every host member of this group
(arg1=val1,arg2=val2,...) :
specifies valued arguments for any target hosts
Valued arguments
Possible valued arguments are :
detach=0/1 (default is 0)
activate/desactivate an independant thread for this job
sleep=n
run jobs after a sleep period on n minutes (useful for threaded
jobs)
output=0/1 (default is 1)
activate/desactivate the output reporting
verbose=0/1 (default is 0)
activate additionnal messages in the output reporting
Examples
Below are examples of shell scripts as cron jobs :
#!/bin/sh
# _runcronjobs_ server1 server2
/usr/bin/find /tmp -mtime +10 -exec rm {} \;
exit $?
The previous job will be run by hosts server1 and server2
#!/bin/sh
# _runcronjobs_ server1 server2(detach=1,sleep=10)
# _runcronjobs_ (output=1) # global options
/usr/bin/find /tmp -mtime +10 -exec rm {} \;
exit $?
The previous job will be run by hosts server1 and server2. Two arguments
are set for server2, so this job will be detach from the sequential
stream, and a pause of 10mn will be assumed before execution beginning.
#!/bin/sh
# _runcronjobs_ @group
/usr/bin/find /tmp -mtime +10 -exec rm {} \;
exit $?
The previous job will be run by every hosts members of the group group.
groups1 must be defined in the configuration file.
#!/bin/sh
# _runcronjobs_ server @group
# _runcronjobs_ (output=1) # global options
/usr/bin/find /tmp -mtime +10 -exec rm {} \;
exit $?
The previous job will be run by every hosts members of the group group,
and by server. Argument output is set for every hosts.
#!/bin/sh
# _runcronjobs_ server1 server2(detach=1,sleep=10)
# _runcronjobs_ server3 @group1
# _runcronjobs_ (output=1) # global options
/usr/bin/find /tmp -mtime +10 -exec rm {} \;
exit $?
CONFIGURATION FILE
The default configuration file is "runcronjob.conf", located in the same
directory as the binary, or in "/etc" and "/etc/runcronjobs.d"
otherwise. It can be redefined with the -c option.
Variables definition
Some variable can be defined with the syntax :
variable=value
See "runcronjobs.conf-sample" file for more explanations.
Host groups definition
Host groups are defined in a section "<host_groups></host_groups>" in
which each group is defined with a line like :
group=member1,member2,member3
A group can be a member of a group, and in this case, must be prepended
with @ :
group1=member1,@group2
Example
<host_groups>
all=@interactives,@monitoring,@mail
mail=mx1,mx2
monitoring=nagios,perfs
interactives=users1,users2,users3
</host_groups>
OUTPUT
"runcronjobs" send a mail on each run. This mail begins with a summary
of the launched jobs, one line per job, sorted by beginning timestamp.
The f""ormat of this line is :
begin_timestamp
-
end_timestamp
jobname
rank_of_end_timestamp flags
-
return
retcode
Flags are :
& : job execution has been detached ("detach" directive)
z : job has slept ("sleep" directive)
The f""ormat of the subject of the mail is :
directory name
# of jobs run
hostname
***
where the number of stars is the number of jobs which has returned a non
zero return code.
HOW TO USE RUNCRONJOBS
To centralize the control of the cron jobs for several servers, create a
shared directory ("/shared/cron.d", for example), and subdirs like
hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and put your cron jobs on them. Add one
or more directives in each cron job to specify at least the host targets
(optionnally with arguments), like :
# _runcronjobs_ server1 server2(detach=1) server3
Then add in the crontab of each server something like :
52 * * * * root /shared/runcronjobs /shared/cron.d/hourly
31 3 * * * root /shared/runcronjobs /shared/cron.d/daily
21 2 * * 1 root /shared/runcronjobs /shared/cron.d/weekly
11 1 1 * * root /shared/runcronjobs /shared/cron.d/monthly
After that, each server will run its own jobs. =pod
SEE ALSO
"MIME::Entity", "Config::General", "Dir::Which", "Set::Groups"
AUTHOR
Jacquelin Charbonnel, "<http://math.univ-angers.fr/~charbonnel>"
BUGS
Please report any bugs or feature requests to "<jacquelin.charbonnel at
math.cnrs.fr>"
SUPPORT
Last version can be found on "<http://math.univ-angers.fr/runcronjobs>"
You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command :
perldoc runcronjobs
COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
Copyright Jacquelin Charbonnel < jacquelin.charbonnel at math.cnrs.fr >
This software is governed by the CeCILL-C license under French law and
abiding by the rules of distribution of free software. You can use,
modify and/ or redistribute the software under the terms of the CeCILL-C
license as circulated by CEA, CNRS and INRIA at the following URL
"http://www.cecill.info".
As a counterpart to the access to the source code and rights to copy,
modify and redistribute granted by the license, users are provided only
with a limited warranty and the software's author, the holder of the
economic rights, and the successive licensors have only limited
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In this respect, the user's attention is drawn to the risks associated
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that may mean that it is complicated to manipulate, and that also
therefore means that it is reserved for developers and experienced
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