cron & crontab

The Luna appliance relies upon the cron process to perform regular operations.

Facility Keyword

Software Process

Log File

syslog

crontab

messages

 

Facility Keyword

Software Process

Log File

cron

anacron[pid]

cron-yyyy-mm-dd

 

Facility Keyword

Software Process

Log File

auth

crond(pam_unix)[pid]

secure

Expected Log Messages

The following log messages are normal and expected entries in the log files from cron activities.

Updated Timestamp

2012 Feb 29 04:02:01 myLuna  cron notice  anacron[1234]: Updated timestamp for job `cron.monthly'* to 2012-02-29

This message indicates that the cron process ran the scheduled monthly (or daily or weekly) cron job.

* Or `cron.daily' or `cron.weekly'.

Login and Logout

2012 Feb 29 12:05:01 myLuna  auth info  crond(pam_unix)[1234]: session opened for user root by (uid=0)
2012 Feb 29 12:05:01 myLuna  auth info  crond(pam_unix)[1234]: session closed for user root

These messages record that cron opened a session to complete any scheduled activities and closed the session when done.

Unexpected Log Messages

Under normal circumstances, you should not see any of these log messages. If you do, please contact Thales Group Technical Support to report the message and seek guidance on what to do next.

Disk Filling

75% - 89%

2012 Feb 29 12:00:00 myLuna  syslog warn  crontab: DISK FULL: WARNING! First log threshold reached 75%. Please clean up the logs using the "syslog cleanup" command

90% - 94%

2012 Feb 29 12:00:00 myLuna  syslog alert  crontab: DISK FULL:  90%. All log files except hsm.log deleted.
2012 Feb 29 12:00:00 myLuna  syslog alert  crontab: DISK FULL: Second log threshold reached 90%. Created logs_diskFull_20120229_1234.tgz  and deleted all log files.*
2012 Feb 29 12:00:00 myLuna  syslog alert  crontab: DISK FULL: WARNING! Second log threshold reached 90% policy: tarlogs_cleanup.**
2012 Feb 29 12:00:00 myLuna  syslog alert  crontab: DISK FULL: Second log threshold reached 90%. Created logs_diskFull_20120229_1234.tgz and deleted all log files.***
2012 Feb 29 12:00:00 myLuna  syslog alert  crontab: DISK FULL: The tar file containing logs is now available via scp as filename "logs_diskFull_20120229_1234.tgz****
2012 Feb 29 12:00:00 myLuna  syslog alert  crontab: DISK FULL: Second log threshold reached $percent%. Failed to create "logs_diskFull_20120229_1234.tgz*****

95% & >

2012 Feb 29 12:00:00 myLuna   syslog emerg  crontab: DISK FULL: EMERGENCY! Third log threshold reached 95%. Please clean up the logs using the "syslog cleanup" command
2012 Feb 29 12:00:00 myLuna   syslog emerg  crontab: DISK FULL: EMERGENCY! Third log threshold reached 95%. Stopping NTLS
2012 Feb 29 12:00:15 myLuna  syslog emerg  crontab: DISK FULL: EMERGENCY! Third log threshold reached 95%. Stopping syslog soon

These messages indicate that disk use is reaching thresholds that require intervention to remove files.

* Message written before syslog rotates logs.

** Message written before syslog rotates logs.

*** Message written after syslog rotates logs.

**** Message written before and after syslog rotates logs.

***** Message written if tar command failed to create file.

Read-Only File System

2012 Feb 29 04:02:01 myLuna  cron err  anacron[1234]: Cannot exclusively create /var/run/anacron.pid: Read-only file system
2012 Feb 29 04:02:01 myLuna  cron err  anacron[1234]: Cannot run in daemon mode - anacron already running.: Resource deadlock avoided
2012 Feb 29 04:02:01 myLuna  cron err  anacron[1234]: Aborted

These messages indicate that the file system is read-only. A possible root cause is a Linux journaling error or a failing hard drive.