lsit-cron

Manage the /etc/crontab file and cron service. Allows for a site-wide and node-specific list of job entries. Data is stored in hiera.

License

Distributed under the New BSD License

Contact

Jose Guevarra jguevarra@lsit.ucsb.edu

Support

This module was tested on puppet 2.7.0, hiera 1.0.0 on Ubuntu, Gentoo, Scientific(RH) systems.

Installation

1) Install lsit-cron module

Install the module by normal means. You will also need to have puppet setup to work with hiera as a data store.

By default, the cron module will write to /etc/crontab and use its own template.

2) Set cron service parameters in hiera "cron::enable" determines whether the cron service should be started on startup. "cron::ensure" determines whether the cron service should be running or not. Example below.

cron::enable: true
cron::ensure: true

3) Set cron variables

## Cron module
cron::crontab_vars_hsh:
  SHELL: /bin/bash
  PATH: /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
  MAILTO: admin@example.com
  HOME: /root

4) Add site-wide job entries

Site-wide values are stored in "cron::crontab_site_job_hsh". Add site-wide job entries to your common.yaml file or which ever file you use to store site-wide heira values. Entries are organized into sections; "rotate logs", by example below. You must have at least one section. See example below.

cron::crontab_site_job_hsh
  'check scripts in cron.hourly, cron.daily, cron.weekly and cron.monthly': 
    - "*/15 *     *    *    *     root    test -x /usr/sbin/run-crons && /usr/sbin/run-crons"
    - "0    *     *    *    *     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.hourly"
    - "0    0     *    *    *     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.daily"
    - "0    0     *    *    6     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.weekly"
    - "0    0     1    *    *     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.monthly"
  'rotate logs': 
    - "0    0     *    *    *     root    /usr/sbin/logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf"

Result

## Site Wide Jobs

# check scripts in cron.hourly, cron.daily, cron.weekly and cron.monthly
 */15 *     *    *    *     root    test -x /usr/sbin/run-crons && /usr/sbin/run-crons
 0    *     *    *    *     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.hourly
 0    0     *    *    *     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.daily
 0    0     *    *    6     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.weekly
 0    0     1    *    *     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.monthly

# rotate logs
 0    0     *    *    *     root    /usr/sbin/logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf

5) Node specific job entries

Node-specific values are stored in "cron::crontab_node_job_hsh". You can add job entries that are specific to a particular node by configuring hiera to lookup node-specific values first. Adding the section "nodes/%{fqdn}" tells hiera took look for values in nodes yaml file(e.g. nodes/leia.example.com.yaml) before it searches the site-wide or os-specific values.

example hiera.yaml
---
:backends: - yaml

:logger: console

:hierarchy: - nodes/%{fqdn}
            - os/%{operatingsystem}
            - common
:yaml:
   :datadir: /etc/puppet/hieradata

6) Operating System specific job entries

The hiera.yaml file above shows that you can separate jobs based off of the OS of the node. So you could add jobs to "cron::crontab_site_job_hsh" in say, "os/Ubuntu.yaml". Puppet will use those values instead of the ones in common.yaml.

7) Overriding template and crontab file path

The template and crontab file path variables are stored in "cron::crontab_tmpl" and "cron::crontab_path", respectively. You can override these values by setting them in either the site-wide or the node-specific data store.

Note: When overriding the "cron::crontab_path", puppet will search with respect to the default template directory.

8) Set "puppetheader" variable(optional)

In general, it is a good idea to have a header on puppet-managed files. The hosts module expects a variable named "puppetheader" to hold the puppet header string. By default, it uses "Managed By Puppet". Override this by adding the "puppetheader" value in your heira data store.

Usage Example (Gentoo)

nodes/leia.example.com.yaml
--------------------------

cron::crontab_path: /tmp/crontab.test

cron::crontab_node_job_hsh:
  'Backup some files':
    - "*/5   *  *  *  * root  /root/backup_script"


common.yaml
-----------

puppetheader: Managed by Puppet @ Example.com

## Cron module
cron::enable: true     # on startup
cron::ensure: true     # running

cron::crontab_vars_hsh:
  SHELL: /bin/bash
  PATH: /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
  MAILTO: admin@example.com
  HOME: /root

cron::crontab_site_job_hsh:
  'check scripts in cron.hourly, cron.daily, cron.weekly and cron.monthly': 
    - "*/15 *     *    *    *     root    test -x /usr/sbin/run-crons && /usr/sbin/run-crons"
    - "0    *     *    *    *     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.hourly"
    - "0    0     *    *    *     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.daily"
    - "0    0     *    *    6     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.weekly"
    - "0    0     1    *    *     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.monthly"
  'rotate logs': 
    - "0    0     *    *    *     root    /usr/sbin/logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf"

Output

## Managed by Puppet
# for vixie-cron

## Variables
HOME=/root 
MAILTO=admin@example.com 
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin 
SHELL=/bin/bash 

# Example of job definition:
# .---------------- minute (0 - 59)
# |  .------------- hour (0 - 23)
# |  |  .---------- day of month (1 - 31)
# |  |  |  .------- month (1 - 12) OR jan,feb,mar,apr ...
# |  |  |  |  .---- day of week (0 - 6) (Sunday=0 or 7) OR sun,mon,tue,wed,thu,fri,sat
# |  |  |  |  |
# *  *  *  *  * username command-to-be-executed

## Site Wide Jobs

# check scripts in cron.hourly, cron.daily, cron.weekly and cron.monthly
 */15 *     *    *    *     root    test -x /usr/sbin/run-crons && /usr/sbin/run-crons
 0    *     *    *    *     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.hourly
 0    0     *    *    *     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.daily
 0    0     *    *    6     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.weekly
 0    0     1    *    *     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.monthly

# rotate logs
 0    0     *    *    *     root    /usr/sbin/logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf

## Node Specific Jobs

# Backup some files
 */5   *  *  *  * root  /root/backup_script