Question

mysqldump via cron

Asked by: ncw

Getting the following error in an email from the scheduled task cron system on a dedicated server:
sh: /mysqldump: No such file or directory

The cron runs a php file with code that executes a mysqldump command using exec. The code works fine when accessed via a url and also ok via an SSH terminal (Putty) but not via cron. The command we're using (with password and path removed) is below.

I've tried adding /usr/bin/ infront of mysqldump, but no difference:

Any ideas please? The control panel is Plesk.

mysqldump -hlocalhost -u db_user -p********** db_somename | gzip >
/var/www/<path>/backup_tue.sql.gz

                                  
1:
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Asked On
2009-10-21 at 11:04:25ID24831733
Tags

mysqldump

,

cron

Topics

MySQL Server

,

Plesk

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
12

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Answers

 

by: routinetPosted on 2009-10-22 at 00:10:32ID: 25631464

Have you verified the location of mysqldump?

 

by: testezPosted on 2009-10-22 at 02:46:22ID: 25632280

Hello,

Try to locate the mysqldump using the following command.

locate mysqldump

 

by: ncwPosted on 2009-10-22 at 03:52:33ID: 25632651

Entering locate mysqldump in Putty at root level returns command not found. But if I browse to /usr/bin/ in WinSCP then I can see the mysqldump file (65Kb)., and if I enter the above command with /usr/bin/mysqldump then it works.

Same command in Php file works via url but not via cron.

 

by: routinetPosted on 2009-10-22 at 17:33:37ID: 25640378

>>> Entering locate mysqldump in Putty at root level returns command not found.

That implies your environment variable 'PATH' is not set properly.  Check to make sure /usr/bin is included.

>>> Same command in Php file works via url but not via cron.

Make sure the user running the cron job has appropriate access to /usr/bin.  That access could be restricted by file system rights or by PHP's operating environment.  Running PHP from the command line will create a different environment than running it from a web page.  Try a cron job that writes phpinfo() to a local file and examine the configuration.

 

by: ncwPosted on 2009-10-23 at 05:22:11ID: 25643639

the locate command is not recognised, however whereis confirms mysqldump location as /usr/bin/

The cron now seems to be finding mysqldump but is now giving the following error:
Permission denied
mysqldump: Got errno 32 on write

So as you infer above there are some permissions issues when running cron. How can I give the cron environment the same permissions as the web url environment, or is that a security issue?

 

by: testezPosted on 2009-10-23 at 06:16:32ID: 25644029

Hello,

Please make sure that the script has permissions to read/write in the location where the backup is saved,

 

by: ncwPosted on 2009-10-23 at 06:39:30ID: 25644279

The existing file is 664 with owner as the account username
The directory is 777 with owner as apache

How do I make sure that the script has permissions to read/write in the location where the backup is saved?


 

by: routinetPosted on 2009-10-23 at 18:31:58ID: 25650307

You need to verify which user is running the cron job, and verify that user has write permission to the directory.  You say the directory is 777, so any user should be able to write to it.  The existing file, though, is read-only for anybody but the owner/group.  Instead of making the file 666 (which adds write to 'everyone'), consider adding the cron user to the file's group owner.

 

by: ncwPosted on 2009-10-24 at 10:33:51ID: 25653256

How would I add the cron user to the file's group owner?

 

by: routinetPosted on 2009-10-26 at 04:12:22ID: 25661101

usermod -aG <file_group_owner> <username>

You should make sure you want this to happen.  If you think there might be security issues, revisit the user owning the cron job, or the user owning the file.

 

by: ncwPosted on 2009-10-27 at 05:40:10ID: 25671705

The cron will now create new backup files ok with owner name as the account name, but the existing backup files have the owner set as 'apache' (the existing files were created by running the php script via a url). For the moment I've renamed the existing files and hope the new files will now be overwritten correctly on a rolling basis as the ownership will be the account name. Not sure how the existing files came to have an ownership of 'apache'.

 

 

by: routinetPosted on 2009-10-27 at 18:13:56ID: 25679211

>>> Not sure how the existing files came to have an ownership of 'apache'.

That is the user that originally created them.  That means either your cron job was running as apache, or the cron job called a script to run under the web service account.

Either way, you could chown those files if it becomes a problem.

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