Questions about a specific cron job

[RetiredAF]

Our server runs CentOS 6.10 KVM, cPanel/WHM version: v76.0.20. The subject cron runs every day. We have a couple of question about this.

 <root@tigger> /usr/bin/yum -y -R 120 -d 0 -e 0 update

1. We have the upcp script running every day which appears to run yum. Is this so and if so is there any reason for us to have yum run twice like this?

2. On most days the subject cron runs silently but occasionally it produces outputs that we don’t understand; examples follow. How can we learn what these outputs mean and whether we need to do anything about them?


Examples of output:


1. Meaning less output

Plugin uninstalled ok
Plugin installed ok
Id: TQ:TaskQueue:28922​

2. More meaning less output

Id: TQ:TaskQueue:28862​

3. Part of some scary output.

Plugin uninstalled ok
Plugin installed ok
Id: TQ:TaskQueue:28783
warning: erase unlink of /lib/modules/2.6.32-754.2.1.el6.x86_64/modules.order failed: No such file or directory
…..
Waiting for “httpd” to stop ………finished.​

4. RPM database problem - Clears up whether or not I fix the database.

rpmdb: Thread/process 30258/46983852938240 failed: Thread died in Berkeley DB library

error: db3 error(-30974) from dbenv->failchk: DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery

error: cannot open Packages index using db3 - (-30974)

error: cannot open Packages database in /var/lib/rpm

CRITICAL:yum.main:


Error: rpmdb open failed​

 

[cPanelMichael]

Hello @RetiredAF,

/usr/bin/yum -y -R 120 -d 0 -e 0 update

This is not a cron job that's added by default with cPanel & WHM. I recommend removing this cron job and browsing to WHM >> Update Preferences to enable automatic system package updates as part of the nightly cPanel update. Or, contact your system administrator or provider to see if that specific cron job was added for a particular reason.

Thank you.

 

[RetiredAF]

Thanks for the information. The cron job was there when we procured the KVM VPS server. Unfortunately the person who sold us the server is an idiot so it is not likely we will find out from him why it is there. I guess we'll remove it.

 

[cPanelMichael]

Hello @RetiredAF,

I should point out the command you referenced simply runs "yum update" after waiting for two hours and then outputs only the critical errors. However, the command does update the kernel, which doesn't happen by default when cPanel & WHM initiates the update. You can enable the following option in WHM >> Tweak Settings if that's something you want to happen:

Enable Linux kernel update during nightly maintenance.

Per it's description:

Each night, WHM updates your system software but does not update the kernel. If you select On, WHM will update the kernel. When you log in, WHM will notify you that your system requires a reboot.

Thank you.