Summary: Problems with crontab

From: Isidoro Sepe <isidoro.sepe_at_tlsoft.it>
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 10:42:55 +0100

Thanks to:

    Sudhir Rao,
    Dale Inman,
    Dejan Muhamedagic,
    Agust Karlsson,
    J.James(Jim)Belonis II,
    Russ Fish.

The question was:

>>I have to run via cron a script that exports an Oracle Database.
>>The script runs fine from shell but it doesn't run if submitted by
>>crontab.
>>The system is a server 4100 DigitalUNIX 4.0D.
>>The script looks like this:
>>#!/bin/sh
>>ORACLE_HOME=/path;export ORACLE_HOME
>>ORACLE_SID=SiD;export ORACLE_SID
>>${ORACLE_HOME}/bin/svrmgrl <<FINE
>>connect internal
>>--shutdown abort
>>--startup exclusive open restrict
>>host ${ORACLE_HOME}/UTL/BCK/bck
>>--alter system disable restricted session;
>>exit
>>FINE


I received a lot of excellent hints but my actual problem was that I didn't
export LD_LIBRARY_HOME=$ORACLE_HOME/lib (This was
stated by Russ Fish).

These are the hints I received:

1) Try su - oracle -c /path/to/script

2)When I have trouble in crontab it is usually for one of two reasons.
2.1) The script that I am running from cron is one that I have forgotten to
make executable or I have a typo in the path or name of the script.
2.2) Pathing issues / Enviromental variables in the script. All of my
database specific, special pathing, etc. come out of /etc/profile. Cron
does not execute the profile so it is necessary to put all your pathing
statements into the shell.

3)Not sure, but I think that the Oracle's programs don't like when there's
no controlling terminal. You didn't specify the actual error messages which
should have been sent by mail from the crond. So, I'd suggest using the
svrmgrl twice (first for dbshut and then for dbstart) and performing backup
in between.

4)cron jobs run under a VERY restricted environment.
You might test by running a cron job like
printenv or printenv >/tmp/cron_printenv_test
It will show you the PATH environment variable and others that might
not be set properly to run the Oracle job. You may have to explicitly
source the .profile or .login or .cshrc file to get the environment
set the way you need it.
When you say "doesn't run" it could mean that cron is somehow screwed up so
cron doesn't run anything ever. The above test should help you verify that
you can indeed run cron jobs at all.
If all looks well, you can instrument the actual cron job by adding the
printenv line to it. This will create a file so you can tell whether
the Oracle cron job ran at all.
If it runs but aborts early or doesn't do what you want,
redirect the output of the svrmgrl command to a file
so you have a record of what kind of error message you might be getting.

Grazie. Ciao.
______________________________________________
Isidoro Sepe - Telesoft spa
Via Vicinale S.Maria del Pianto,snc
80143 Napoli
Phone : +39-81-7564486
Fax : +39-81-7564252
email : isidoro.sepe_at_tlsoft.it
______________________________________________
Received on Thu Oct 29 1998 - 09:47:50 NZDT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Wed Nov 08 2023 - 11:53:38 NZDT