Need to setup a cronjob to restart server every ten hours

SiteWorx General Discussion
1

Hello,

How would I go about setting up a crontab to restart my server every ten hours?

Thanks.

2

  1. Why do you need to do that?

  2. When you say server, what exactly are you referring to (Apache, MySQL, FTP, etc., the box itself)?

3

Its probably not a good idea, but eh. I don’t have anything to do it every 10 hours, but here is a script I wrote recently to give individual users the same nice directory based cron access root can get. It “remembers” when it last issued commands.

2 notes: I didn’t know what to call it, so every 12 hours is “meridianly”. Also, output text from commands gets fudged. No line breaks.

#!/bin/bash

CRON_DIR="cron"
DONE_DIR=".done"

THISHOUR=$(date +%F-%k)
THISMERIDIAN=$(date +%F-%p)
THISDAY=$(date +%F)
THISWEEK=$(date +%y-%U)
THISMONTH=$(date +%y-%m)

for schedule in hourly meridianly daily weekly monthly; do
	command_dir=~/$CRON_DIR/$schedule
	
	datestring=""
	if [ $schedule == hourly ]; then
		datestring=$THISHOUR
	elif [ $schedule == meridianly ]; then
		datestring=$THISMERIDIAN
	elif [ $schedule == daily ]; then
		datestring=$THISDAY
	elif [ $schedule == weekly ]; then
		datestring=$THISWEEK
	elif [ $schedule == monthly ]; then
		datestring=$THISMONTH
	fi
	
	if [ -e $command_dir ]; then
		for command in $(ls $command_dir); do
			if [ ! -e $command_dir/$DONE_DIR/$command-$datestring ]; then
				output=`$command_dir/$command 2>&1`
				
				if [ ! -e $command_dir/$DONE_DIR ]; then
					mkdir $command_dir/$DONE_DIR
				fi
				
				if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
					rm -f $command_dir/$DONE_DIR/$command-*
					touch $command_dir/$DONE_DIR/$command-$datestring
				fi
				
				if [ -n "$output" ]; then
					echo "    ==========    "
					echo $schedule: $command
					echo $output
					echo ""
				fi
			fi
		done
	fi
done
4

The first step is to write a bash script, I know that much :wink:

As for creating a cron I’m not sure how to do that but I’m sure google could tell you :slight_smile:

5

Hello just the box. It locks up once an a while. Developer suggests to setup a restart to clear out the excess memory for the server.

6

I’d be leary if the solution was a periodic reboot euser, especially on a linux box. sonicgroup had it right in trying to nail down what exactly was causing the issue. a reboot cronjob is easy but if we can help you with the real problem that may be more helpful :).

Chris

7

In my opinion, and I’m not trying to be hostile, or bash your developer, but you, as the server owner/script user, might want to have your dev take a look at whatever is causing the box to lock up. If it is indeed a script, there’s something wrong - because it takes quite a bit to lock up a *nix box. :wink:

The other problem you may run into - if the box itself locks up, a cron job won’t be able to run and reboot the server. More than likely a hard reboot would be necessary.

8

I dont see why you ever need to reboot your nix box anyhow? I’ve known of a nix box(s) (server environment) that has running for more than 365days an more without rebooting.

I would seek professional help for someone to take a look at your box because of the questioned incident. Having to restart your box every 10hours is not a production machine i guess?