no mail from cron

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jamma
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2019 10:03 am

no mail from cron

Post by jamma »

Hi there,

I've set up a Zimbra server for a local initiative. We're quite pleased with it.

I've also set up a backup script and noticed that I'm not getting any e-mail from cron. The system runs on "CentOS Linux release 7.6.1810 (Core)", Zimbra version is "8.8.10_GA_3716.FOSS". Crond is provided by "cronie-1.4.11-20.el7_6.x86_64".

On another server I had to install mailx so cron could send me mail, but that did not help here. I'm not getting any mail from cron. Example crontab (/etc/cron.d/backup-system):

Code: Select all

SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin;/opt/zimbra/common/sbin/;/opt/zimbra/common/bin
MAILTO=admin@buerger-meissen.de

12 3 * * * root /root/backup-system.sh
28 20 21 1 * root echo "test mail from cron"
The cronjobs are executed just fine: (excerpt from /var/log/cron)
Jan 21 20:28:01 bi crond[3395]: (*system*) RELOAD (/etc/cron.d/backup-system)
Jan 21 20:28:02 bi CROND[21593]: (zimbra) CMD (/opt/zimbra/libexec/zmstatuslog > /dev/null 2>&1)
Jan 21 20:28:02 bi CROND[21594]: (root) CMD (echo "test mail from cron")
Jan 21 20:28:02 bi CROND[21589]: (root) CMDOUT (test mail from cron)
Jan 21 20:30:01 bi CROND[23019]: (zimbra) CMD (/opt/zimbra/libexec/zmlogprocess > /tmp/logprocess.out 2>&1)
But no mail from cron anywhere. No error either (not in cron's log, not in /var/log/maillog).

I also tried symlinking /opt/zimbra/common/sbin/sendmail to /usr/sbin - no effect.

Any hints, ideas and pointers are welcome!
Jordack
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2014 2:15 am

Re: no mail from cron

Post by Jordack »

I had a similar issue. Don’t remember the actual fix, sorry for not being more useful. If I recall; the mail was stuck in the queue.

The postfix log gave me more insight on why it was getting denied.
jamma
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2019 10:03 am

Re: no mail from cron

Post by jamma »

After lots of head-scratching I figured it out: cronie needs to find a /usr/sbin/sendmail on startup and doesn't provide any helpful error messages whatsoever.

Aftr all, this worked:
ln-s /opt/zimbra/common/sbin/sendmail /usr/sbin
systemctrl restart crond
Jordack
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2014 2:15 am

Re: no mail from cron

Post by Jordack »

That’s for the update and the fix.
davidkillingsworth
Outstanding Member
Outstanding Member
Posts: 251
Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2014 2:26 am
ZCS/ZD Version: 8.8.15.GA.3869.UBUNTU14.64-Patch 24

Re: no mail from cron

Post by davidkillingsworth »

Thanks for this.

I was actually trying to get my root cron jobs to generate mail so that I would get notifications for my Letsencrypt renewal script.

I found that there was an old symlink that didn't exist anymore that pointed to /opt/zimbra/postfix/sbin/sendmail. This is an artifact of an old zimbra version.

You can run this command with the "f" switch to force the symlink to be overwritten. I'm just correcting your syntax slightly as you have some typo.

Code: Select all

$ sudo ln -sf /opt/zimbra/common/sbin/sendmail /usr/sbin/sendmail
$ sudo service  cron restart
This is tested on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and Zimbra Release 8.8.15.GA.3829.UBUNTU14.64 UBUNTU14_64 FOSS edition, Patch 8.8.15_P14.
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