Filed with Developers Cron limits [Case 54937]

[n3t5ky]

Hello

Great feature, would be:

Limit by package:

max. number of cron tasks
max. frequency


maybe nice priority to cron?

[n3t5ky]

Hello

I think it would be nice, to had a few more options to set in package:

max cron tasks per user
max delay between cron runs
max frequency of cron tasks
max execution time of cron process


What You think?
Best Regards,
Adam

[ckh]

I think minimum delay between cron runs would be better than max delay...

[n3t5ky]

I think minimum delay between cron runs would be better than max delay...

Yes, your right. I mean that, but my English is not good enough.

[Kent Brockman]

Interesting. But also a complex modification to the package, I think. This requires to be more likely new Tweak Settings than a modification of the plugin.

[oshs]

Hi,

Not sure if this has been requested before.

It's very irritating when users set up ***** cron jobs to run every minute!

Server admins should have the ability to specify the minimum period crons can be set to run, e.g. 5 or 15 mins

If you agree, please add your vote for this.

Regards,
Suhail.

[cPanelDavidG]

I noticed there were several conversations about this topic, so I have merged them all. I'll run this past our developers next week to see if they have any questions before I start writing up a report etc.

[cPanelDavidG]

If you are running cPanel&WHM within CloudLinux, know that the limits you set for cPanel users will also apply to their cron jobs. So if they want to run CPU-intensive processes every minute, they can do so, but those CPU/memory costs will be debited from their CPU/memory/process allocations.

[cPanelDavidG]

I met with our developers and we came up with a usage scenario that we need clarified by those interested in this functionality.

Let's say you limit cron jobs to be executed no more than once every 15 minutes. What should happen if someone wants to execute a cron job every 5 minutes but only on Tuesdays?

We're thinking that should not be permitted but maybe our assumptions are wrong - hence the inquiry.

The plan we're thinking of is that you specify acceptable values for each field in the cron job. So if you wanted to limit cron jobs to being executed every 15 minutes, you could specify 15,30,45 as valid values for that field. Then our interface could detect you are limiting that field to specific values, and display a drop-down box with those values. For a field where you specify only 1 valid value, that value will always be used and will just be displayed (rather than a drop-down). This will allow system administrators to do creative things like specify "59" as the only valid value for minutes, forcing cron jobs to rotate around the clock so not everyone's cronjob is executing at the top of the hour.

What's your thoughts on that?

[ckh]

I'd have to agree with you, if you set the cron to run no more than 1 every 15 minutes, then it should be enforced 24/7.

I think simple is best. Just limit the crons from running more than every X minutes.

[cPanelDavidG]

In a couple weeks, I'll file the below report with our developers. Please make sure it accurately reflects what you want before I submit this report.

CALL FOR COMMENTS

A root-level user will specify acceptable values for each field in the cron job.

So if you wanted to limit cron jobs to being executed every 15 minutes, you could specify 15,30,45 as valid values for that field in WHM. Then the cPanel interface could detect the server is limiting that field to specific values, and display a drop-down box with those values. For a field where you specify only 1 valid value, that value will always be used and will just be displayed (rather than a drop-down, effectively disabling it from being changed). This will allow system administrators to do creative things like specify "59" as the only valid value for minutes, forcing cron jobs to rotate around the clock so not everyone's cronjob is executing at the top of the hour.

This settings would always apply, even if a cron job is being made for just a single day of the week.

[Kent Brockman]

Cool. I agree with those restrictions.

[DomineauX]

I personally think just including some validation code and a warning message to ensure that the maximum frequency is not exceeded. If the root WHM account sets the limit as every 15 minutes, then trying to put in */5 in the minute field would error saying that "The maximum execution frequency is every 15 minutes".

[cPanelDavidG]

I personally think just including some validation code and a warning message to ensure that the maximum frequency is not exceeded. If the root WHM account sets the limit as every 15 minutes, then trying to put in */5 in the minute field would error saying that "The maximum execution frequency is every 15 minutes".

If the minimum execution frequency is 1 hour, what would be a valid input for the minutes field?

[Kent Brockman]

If the minimum execution frequency is 1 hour, what would be a valid input for the minutes field?

I think this setting should allow to define the minimum acceptable value for every field in the cron configuration.