Watchdog can not update crontab

[adamluz]

When I go to modules and click watchdog, this is what displays on the page:

ERROR: WDCPExc Up LevelUp Level


Changing of crontab configuration failed.

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

0: /usr/local/psa/admin/plib/modules/watchdog/wdcplib.php:143
set_cronjob_task(string '/usr/local/psa/libexec/modules/watchdog/cp/secur-check', string 'root', array)
1: /usr/local/psa/admin/plib/modules/watchdog/wdcplib.php:39
set_secur_scan_cronjob(string 'weekly')
2: /usr/local/psa/admin/plib/modules/watchdog/configure.php:26
require_once(string '/usr/local/psa/admin/plib/modules/watchdog/configure.php')
3: /usr/local/psa/admin/plib/modules/watchdog/wdcplib.php:218
wd__require_once(string 'configure.php')
4: /usr/local/psa/admin/plib/modules/watchdog/preaction.php:24
require_once(string '/usr/local/psa/admin/plib/modules/watchdog/preaction.php')
5: /usr/local/psa/admin/htdocs/modules/watchdog/index.php:13


Thats it. Nothing else loads. HELP PLEASE

 

[eugenevdm]

I'm having a similar problem. I found this SWSoft Knowledgebase article which states:

http://kb.swsoft.com/en/1709

-----

RESOLUTION:

Make sure that the 'root' crontab syntax is correct and the are no no any special time specification "nicknames" like:

@reboot
@yearly
@annually
@monthly
@weekly
@daily
@hourly

Plesk does not support them. Please use their alternatives, see "man 5 crontab".
If you need to set a scheduled task you can also do it through Plesk CP on the Server -> Scheduled Tasks page.

-----

Unfortunately I don't understand the article and the information presented doesn't help me much at all. I never touched the 'root' crontab syntax so I suspect some upgrade broke it. Here is one guy who's suggestion was to do:

http://forums.theplanet.com/lofiversion/index.php/t84354.html

You need to a 'rpm -ivh *' on the Plesk upgrade rpms in /root/psa/SOMETHING

It happened to me when I upgraded, just with slightly different pages.

but that sounds like a fairly radical fix so I'm going to try and figure out the crontab syntax nonsense first.

 

[eugenevdm]

OK I figured it out and yes I did ended up RTFM.

Basically you can use 'crontab -l' to see the current user's crontab. As this problem occurs on the root user you will have to log in as the root user first. Indeed the @ alias is the problem. So before I had:

[root@xx2 psa]# crontab -l
11,26,41,56     *       *       *       *       /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/backupmng >/dev/null 2>&1
@hourly /var/named/run-root/etc/xfer-config.sh

You will notice and @hourly alias, I use Atomic's script to replicate my DNS. After I went in with webmin I change the shedule from simple hourly schedule to specifying 0 minutes, every hour, every day, every day of month, and every day of week and ended up with:

[root@xx2 psa]# crontab -l
11,26,41,56     *       *       *       *       /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/backupmng >/dev/null 2>&1
0       *       *       *       *       /var/named/run-root/etc/xfer-config.sh

and hurah now it's working! Now finally I can use the Watchdog.

 

[adamluz]

Thanks - That fixed my problem.

I had
[root@akiracreativegroup ~]# crontab -l
*/15 * * * * /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/backupmng >/dev/null 2>&1
47 23 * * * /usr/sbin/ntpdate -b -s tick.ucla.edu
@hourly /etc/webmin/time/sync.pl
@daily /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/statistics >/dev/null 2>&1 #Awstats


and updated it to:

[root@akiracreativegroup ~]# crontab -l
*/15 * * * * /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/backupmng >/dev/null 2>&1
47 23 * * * /usr/sbin/ntpdate -b -s tick.ucla.edu
0 * * * * /etc/webmin/time/sync.pl
59 2 * * * /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/statistics >/dev/null 2>&1 #Awstats


Now watchdog works great