Keeping a process running with Flock and Cron

We've got a few processes here that aren't system services, but need to be running in the background and should be restarted if they die. However, this method can also be used for a cron that often runs past it's normal re-execution time (say a every 5 min cron that sometimes runs for 7min). It will prevent multiple executions from running simultaneously.

First off, in your crontab, you can add a line like this:

* * * * * flock -x -n /tmp/awesomenessRunning.lock -c "/usr/local/bin/myAwesomeScript.sh" >/dev/null 2>&1

What happens here is fairly straight forward:

• Every minute, flock executes your script in this case "/usr/local/bin/myAwesomeScript.sh"
• flock opens up an exclusive write lock on the lock file, here named "/tmp/awesomenessRunning.lock". When it's done executing, it'll release the lock.
• The next time this cron runs, flock will attempt to again, get an exclusive lock on that lock file... but it can't if that script is still running, so it'll give up and try again next time the cron runs.

Now, generally, if I'm doing this as a systems level item, I'll put the following in a file named for the job or what the job is doing and drop it in /etc/cron.d/. All the files there will get compiled together into the system cron, which helps other admins (or your later self) to find and disable it later. If you do that, remember to stick the user to execute the cron as between the *'s and the flock!

Running Custom SNMPd Checks in CentOS 6

I've been fighting with a problem between CentOS 5.x and CentOS 6.x SNMPD configs. In CentOS 5.x we have two lines in /etc/snmpd/snmpd.conf like the following:

exec 1.3.6.1.4.1.5001.100 mailq-check /usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_mailq -w2 -c4 -t7 
exec 1.3.6.1.4.1.5002.1 fscheck /bin/touch /opt/rocheck && /bin/touch /tmp/rocheck

They're simple commands that extend snmp. In CentOS 5.x this form is: "exec <return oid> <name> <command>" and when setup the command or script's output will be returned via snmpd to those that request the MIB/OID. All well and good, but copying this into the standard snmpd.conf file from CentOS 6 gave me nothing. running snmpd with verbose logging gave me nothing useful other than being able to see that it was being requested. Digging deeper, I found the following command and it's output:

# snmpwalk -v 2c 10.93.90.209 -c rsprod .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.8
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extIndex.1 = INTEGER: 1
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extIndex.2 = INTEGER: 2
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extNames.1 = STRING: 1.3.6.1.4.1.5001.100
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extNames.2 = STRING: 1.3.6.1.4.1.5002.1
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extCommand.1 = STRING: mailq-check
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extCommand.2 = STRING: fscheck
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extResult.1 = INTEGER: 1
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extResult.2 = INTEGER: 1
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extOutput.1 = STRING: mailq-check: No such file or directory
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extOutput.2 = STRING: fscheck: No such file or directory
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extErrFix.1 = INTEGER: 0
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extErrFix.2 = INTEGER: 0
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extErrFixCmd.1 = STRING: 
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extErrFixCmd.2 = STRING: 

Looking at this, it doesn't look like it's running my script "/usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_mailq -w2 -c4 -t7" but attempting to run the name "mailq-check". Of course, that isn't the script name+path, so it doesn't find it. Turns out that in CentOS 6, you don't use the oid portion:

exec mailq-check "/usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_mailq -w2 -c4 -t7 -Mpostfix"
exec fscheck "/bin/touch /opt/rocheck && /bin/touch /tmp/rocheck"

Which, when called with the same snmpwalk above, comes back as:

UCD-SNMP-MIB::extIndex.1 = INTEGER: 1
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extIndex.2 = INTEGER: 2
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extNames.1 = STRING: mailq-check
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extNames.2 = STRING: fscheck
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extCommand.1 = STRING: /usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_mailq -w2 -c4 -t7 -Mpostfix
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extCommand.2 = STRING: /bin/touch /opt/rocheck && /bin/touch /tmp/rocheck
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extResult.1 = INTEGER: 0
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extResult.2 = INTEGER: 0
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extOutput.1 = STRING: OK: mailq reports queue is empty|unsent=0;2;4;0
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extOutput.2 = STRING: 
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extErrFix.1 = INTEGER: 0
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extErrFix.2 = INTEGER: 0
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extErrFixCmd.1 = STRING: 
UCD-SNMP-MIB::extErrFixCmd.2 = STRING: 

Now, let me explain what all of these MIBs mean.

• extIndex.#
  The Index number of the command
• extNames.#
  The Name you gave the command. This is the first parameter you pass to exec
• extCommand.#
  The full command you had SNMPd call to return you this info. Second parameter you passed to exec
• extResult.#
  Exit Code from the command exec'd
• extOutput.#
  Raw output of the command exec'd
• extErrFix.#
  This is a bit that can be flipped by the client. Flipping this to a 1 kicks off the extErrFixCmd by SNMPd. Generally this is used to 'fix' and 'error' condition.
• extErrFixCmd.#
  The command to be executed by the SNMPd server