[resolved] Cron Job on CentOS7 not fetching email (auto-cron functions properly)

jlaroche · Oct 31, 2019

I'm having an incredibly difficult time getting cron jobs to work for OSTicket. Here is all the background info:

We are running OSTicket on a CentOS 7 VM inhouse.
Running OSTicket version 1.12.3
PHP version 7.3.11
Apache version 2.4.6

This is the cron job I've setup:
*/1 * * * * apache /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/osticket/api/cron.php
The job was created with the crontab -e command

Here is how I've setup OSTicket:
Under Email Settings 'Email Fetching' is Enabled, 'Fetch on auto-cron' is Disabled
The Default Email address has the 'Status' Enabled under 'Fetching Email via IMAP or POP'

NOTE:

Auto-cron was thoroughly tested and working properly before we moved to disable it with the aim of using cron jobs on the server.
crond is running (verified with sudo systemctl status crond)

We've sent a large number of test emails, but no fetching takes place.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

RBGE · Oct 31, 2019

jlaroche I'd get rid of the username at the front of that, and instead edit the cron job for the user your webserver runs as. Assuming apache is the username, just use crontab -e -u apache and enter the following:

*/1 * * * * php /var/www/html/osticket/api/cron.php

(You can specify the full PHP path if you prefer, but it's not strictly necessary. The main part is to get rid of the username in the command). Make sure to remove the old cron job from the main account!

jlaroche · Oct 31, 2019

I solved the issue myself. The problem is the cron job should not have a user specified. Apparently, cron job via 'crontab -e' sees the entry as a command it should run rather than the user who should be executing the command. The correct cron job entry via 'crontab -e' is as follows:

*/1 * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/osticket/api/cron.php

NOTE:
This obviously polls once per minute.

jlaroche · Oct 31, 2019

RBGE

Thanks!!! I actually came to that conclusion indipendently. I appreciate your assistance though!!!

RBGE · Oct 31, 2019

jlaroche Good stuff, just bear in mind if you were logged in as root while typing crontab -e, then the cron job will run as root. If any vulnerabilities get discovered in osTicket that can be exploited via a cron job, this is a bad thing.