Step to rebuild crontab file of zimbra user

---

Problem

Default crontab of zimbra user removed accidentally.
OR
System admin removed some entries from the crontab file.

Solution

Steps to restore or rebuilt crontab entries for the zimbra user on different ZCS environments.

(A) Steps for single-server setup:

First we have to take backup of current crontab file, then we will use following commands to re-built crontab for zimbra user.

On ZCS v8.6:

cp -pvr /var/spool/cron/zimbra  /tmp/zimbra.cron.BAK  
cat /opt/zimbra/zimbramon/crontabs/crontab > /tmp/cron.zimbra
cat /opt/zimbra/zimbramon/crontabs/crontab.ldap >> /tmp/cron.zimbra
cat /opt/zimbra/zimbramon/crontabs/crontab.store >> /tmp/cron.zimbra
cat /opt/zimbra/zimbramon/crontabs/crontab.logger >> /tmp/cron.zimbra
cat /opt/zimbra/zimbramon/crontabs/crontab.mta >> /tmp/cron.zimbra
echo "# ZIMBRAEND -- DO NOT EDIT ANYTHING BETWEEN THIS LINE AND ZIMBRASTART" >> /tmp/cron.zimbra 
crontab -u zimbra /tmp/cron.zimbra   
su - zimbra -c "zmschedulebackup -D" 

On ZCS v8.7.x:

cp -pvr /var/spool/cron/zimbra  /tmp/zimbra.cron.BAK  
cat /opt/zimbra/conf/crontabs/crontab > /tmp/cron.zimbra
cat /opt/zimbra/conf/crontabs/crontab.ldap >> /tmp/cron.zimbra
cat /opt/zimbra/conf/crontabs/crontab.store >> /tmp/cron.zimbra
cat /opt/zimbra/conf/crontabs/crontab.logger >> /tmp/cron.zimbra
cat /opt/zimbra/conf/crontabs/crontab.mta >> /tmp/cron.zimbra
echo "# ZIMBRAEND -- DO NOT EDIT ANYTHING BETWEEN THIS LINE AND ZIMBRASTART" >> /tmp/cron.zimbra 
crontab -u zimbra /tmp/cron.zimbra   
su - zimbra -c "zmschedulebackup -D" 

(B) Steps for multi-server setup:

Here we have mentioned the commands according to the role of ZCS server.

On ZCS v8.6:

LDAP Server:

cp -pvr /var/spool/cron/zimbra  /tmp/zimbra.cron.BAK 
cat /opt/zimbra/zimbramon/crontabs/crontab > /tmp/cron.zimbra
cat /opt/zimbra/zimbramon/crontabs/crontab.ldap >> /tmp/cron.zimbra  
echo "# ZIMBRAEND -- DO NOT EDIT ANYTHING BETWEEN THIS LINE AND ZIMBRASTART" >> /tmp/cron.zimbra  
crontab -u zimbra /tmp/cron.zimbra   
su - zimbra -c "zmschedulebackup -D" 

Mailbox Server:

cp -pvr /var/spool/cron/zimbra  /tmp/zimbra.cron.BAK 
cat /opt/zimbra/zimbramon/crontabs/crontab > /tmp/cron.zimbra
cat /opt/zimbra/zimbramon/crontabs/crontab.store >> /tmp/cron.zimbra
echo "# ZIMBRAEND -- DO NOT EDIT ANYTHING BETWEEN THIS LINE AND ZIMBRASTART" >> /tmp/cron.zimbra  
crontab -u zimbra /tmp/cron.zimbra   
su - zimbra -c "zmschedulebackup -D" 
/etc/init.d/crond restart

MTA+Proxy Server:

cp -pvr /var/spool/cron/zimbra  /tmp/zimbra.cron.BAK  
cat /opt/zimbra/zimbramon/crontabs/crontab > /tmp/cron.zimbra
cat /opt/zimbra/zimbramon/crontabs/crontab.mta >> /tmp/cron.zimbra
echo "# ZIMBRAEND -- DO NOT EDIT ANYTHING BETWEEN THIS LINE AND ZIMBRASTART" >> /tmp/cron.zimbra 
crontab -u zimbra /tmp/cron.zimbra   

On ZCS v8.7.x:

LDAP Server:

cp -pvr /var/spool/cron/zimbra  /tmp/zimbra.cron.BAK 
cat /opt/zimbra/conf/crontabs/crontab > /tmp/cron.zimbra
cat /opt/zimbra/conf/crontabs/crontab.ldap >> /tmp/cron.zimbra  
echo "# ZIMBRAEND -- DO NOT EDIT ANYTHING BETWEEN THIS LINE AND ZIMBRASTART" >> /tmp/cron.zimbra  
crontab -u zimbra /tmp/cron.zimbra   
su - zimbra -c "zmschedulebackup -D" 

Mailbox Server:

cp -pvr /var/spool/cron/zimbra  /tmp/zimbra.cron.BAK 
cat /opt/zimbra/conf/crontabs/crontab > /tmp/cron.zimbra
cat /opt/zimbra/conf/crontabs/crontab.store >> /tmp/cron.zimbra
echo "# ZIMBRAEND -- DO NOT EDIT ANYTHING BETWEEN THIS LINE AND ZIMBRASTART" >> /tmp/cron.zimbra  
crontab -u zimbra /tmp/cron.zimbra   
su - zimbra -c "zmschedulebackup -D" 

MTA+Proxy Server:

cp -pvr /var/spool/cron/zimbra  /tmp/zimbra.cron.BAK  
cat /opt/zimbra/conf/crontabs/crontab > /tmp/cron.zimbra
cat /opt/zimbra/conf/crontabs/crontab.mta >> /tmp/cron.zimbra
echo "# ZIMBRAEND -- DO NOT EDIT ANYTHING BETWEEN THIS LINE AND ZIMBRASTART" >> /tmp/cron.zimbra 
crontab -u zimbra /tmp/cron.zimbra   

Note : We have to restart Cron service after installing new crontab file.

Commands to restart Cron service on different OS versions.

Ubuntu 12.04/14.04/16.04

service cron restart

RHEL/CentOS 7.x

systemctl restart crond

RHEL/CentOS 6.x

service crond restart

Submitted by: Heera Singh Koranga