Check cron task/job status in Photon OS

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

In Photon OS,  when we  schedule  a task/job with crontab.  Is there any way to check the cron task/job status?

Environment

vCenter 8.0.x

Cause

We need to run command to check cron task/job history, because sometimes, cron.log or crond.log is not avaialble.

Resolution

1) systemctl status cron 

root@localhost [  ]# systemctl status cron
* crond.service - Command Scheduler
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/crond.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Fri YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss UTC; 4 days ago
   Main PID: #### (crond)
      Tasks: 1 (limit: #####)
     Memory: 1.2M
     CGroup: /system.slice/crond.service
             `-#### /usr/sbin/crond -n

YYYY-MM-DD localhost.localdomain anacron[#######]: Anacron started on YYYY-MM-DD
YYYY-MM-DD localhost.localdomain anacron[#######]: Normal exit (0 jobs run)
YYYY-MM-DD localhost.localdomain run-parts[#######]: (/etc/cron.hourly) starting create-backup.sh
YYYY-MM-DD localhost.localdomain CROND[#######]: (root) CMDOUT (/etc/cron.hourly/create-backup.sh:)
YYYY-MM-DD localhost.localdomain CROND[#######]: (root) CMDOUT ()
YYYY-MM-DD localhost.localdomain CROND[#######]: (root) CMDOUT (Invoking Backup utility ...)
YYYY-MM-DD localhost.localdomain CROND[#######]: (root) CMDOUT (Using vcloud as default PG DB to backup)
YYYY-MM-DD localhost.localdomain CROND[#######]: (root) CMDOUT (sudo: psql: command not found)
YYYY-MM-DD localhost.localdomain CROND[#######]: (root) CMDOUT (Failed to obtain current webserver certificate ID.)
YYYY-MM-DD localhost.localdomain run-parts[#######][#######]: (/etc/cron.hourly) finished create-backup.sh

 

2) journalctl can return information about cron, but be careful with the parameters:

a) NG

#  journalctl -u cron.service

-- Journal begins at  YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss UTC, ends at YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss UTC. --
-- No entries --

 

b) OK 

#  journalctl --unit crond -n all

YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss localhost systemd[1]: Started Command Scheduler.
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss localhost crond[1008]: (CRON) STARTUP (1.5.5)
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss localhost crond[1008]: (CRON) INFO (RANDOM_DELAY will be scaled with factor 26% if used.)
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss localhost.localdomain CROND[####]: (root) CMD (. /etc/profile.d/VMware-visl-integration.sh; /usr/lib/applmgmt/support/scripts/ssh_monitor.py >/dev/null 2>&1)
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss localhost.localdomain CROND[####]: (root) CMD ( /usr/lib/applmgmt/syslog/scripts/syslog_cron.sh >/dev/null 2>&1)
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss localhost.localdomain crond[####]: (CRON) missing newline before EOF (/etc/cron.d/postgres_telemetry.cron)
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss localhost.localdomain CROND[####]: (root) CMD (. /usr/lib/applmgmt/backup_restore/scripts/backup-restore-cron-loader.sh ; /usr/lib/applmgmt/backup_restore/scripts/Sched>
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss localhost.localdomain CROND[####]: (root) CMD (. /usr/lib/applmgmt/backup_restore/scripts/backup-restore-cron-loader.sh ; /usr/lib/applmgmt/monitoring/scripts/alarm_cro>
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss localhost.localdomain CROND[####]: (root) CMD ( /usr/lib/applmgmt/syslog/scripts/syslog_cron.sh >/dev/null 2>&1)
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss localhost.localdomain CROND[####]: (root) CMD (. /etc/profile.d/VMware-visl-integration.sh; /usr/lib/applmgmt/support/scripts/ssh_monitor.py >/dev/null 2>&1)
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss localhost.localdomain CROND[####]: (root) CMD (. /usr/lib/applmgmt/backup_restore/scripts/backup-restore-cron-loader.sh ; /usr/lib/applmgmt/monitoring/scripts/alarm_cro>
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss localhost.localdomain CROND[####]: (root) CMD ( test -x /usr/sbin/vpxd_periodic && /usr/sbin/vpxd_periodic >/dev/null 2>&1)
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss localhost.localdomain CROND[####]: (root) CMD ( test -x /usr/sbin/cloudvm_ram_size_periodic && /usr/sbin/cloudvm_ram_size_periodic >/dev/null 2>&1)
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss localhost.localdomain CROND[####]: (root) CMD (. /usr/lib/applmgmt/backup_restore/scripts/backup-restore-cron-loader.sh ; /usr/lib/applmgmt/backup_restore/scripts/Sched>