SAM deleted crontab, possible recovery?

[Janko Meskovski]

When adding an automated backup SAM reported "error on previous line; unexpected character found in line." when adding the crontab entry and ended up with an empty crontab file.

Looking at the SAM log and /usr/sam/lbin/cron_change I don't see if the crontab was backed up before doing these changes. Is there any possibility of restoring the crontab file?

I also have a very recent make_tape_recovery backup so if its possible to get the crontab file from there it would be great.

Quick responses will be greatly appreciated. ty

[Slawomir Gora]

Hi,

you can use tape from make_tape_recovery

mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn fsf 1
tar xvf /dev/rmt/0m var/spool/cron/crontabs

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Hi,

Check /var/cron/backup

Regards,
Robert-Jan

[RAC_1]

Slight correction in ealier post.

mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn fsf 1
tar xvf /dev/rmt/0mn var/spool/cron/crontabs

You will have to user no rewind device on tar command.

Anil

[Slawomir Gora]

Hi RAC

there is no need to use /dev/rmt/0mn by tar insted of /dev/rmt/0m :)

Important is to use "mn" by mt command.

[Janko Meskovski]

Slawomir - unfortunately /var/spool/cron/crontabs seems not to have been backed up with make_tape_recovery. Should it have been in the archive by default?

Robert-Jan - there is no /var/cron/ or /var/adm/cron/backup.

Is it possible that SAM (or rather cron_change) executes "crontab -r" without backuping the crontab file?!? :(

[Slawomir Gora]

Hi,

on my tape there is var/spool/cron

look at directory:
/var/opt/ignite/recovery
and check file
grep "/var/spool/cron" arch.include

try to check tape by:

mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn fsf 1
tar tvf /dev/rmt/0mn | grep "var/spool/cron"

don't use /var/spool/cron but var/spool/cron

Ps,

I have cloned a lot of servers by make_recovery
and there was no problem with corntab.

[Janko Meskovski]

Thank you for your answers. Unfortunately I wasn't able to restore the crontab from backup so I ended reconstructing it from the cron logs.

Slawomir - ty, I will check why make_tape_recovery didn't backup the crontab file.

[MarkSyder]

Ignite (on my systems at least) by default backs up only part of vg00 - /var and /opt are excluded. This might explain why cron wasn't on your backup. I always explicitly include the missing filesystems.

Mark Syder (like the drink but spelt different)

[Steve Post]

Look in the forums for stuff you want to have a copy of.

I have a paper copy of the main crontabs on my boxes.
crontab -l
vgdisplay -v
bdf
cat /etc/fstab
cat /etc/hosts
netstat -in
netstat -i
ioscan -fun
lvlnboot -v
....and many more.
This can be very VERY useful on a maintenance day.

steve
steve

[Geoff Wild]

THis doesn't help you now - but will in the future...

Install cfg2html

http://come.to/cfg2html

It documents your server, inculding root's crontab.

Run it from cron:

# Run the cfg2html scripts,
35 6 1 * * cd /opt/cfg2html ; /opt/cfg2html/cfg2html_hpux.sh >/dev/null 2>&1

Then copy the html file to a central location...

Rgds...Geoff