TaskoMatic
Taskomatic is a job scheduler which closely resembles cron. Taskomatic jobs are the "background" parts of Spacewalk which must be performed on a regular basis.
The Java port of Taskomatic is based on the Quartz scheduler library. The daemon part of Taskomatic uses the Tanuki Service Wrapper library.
Tasks are grouped into bunches (e.g. package-cleanup-bunch contains one task package-cleanup). If you want to run task bunches on regular basis, then you have Task schedule (e.g. package-cleanup-default).
To check whether the engine is running and what is the last time each bunch was ran and its state, check Admin -> Task Engine Status and note "Scheduling Service: ON" and status and execution date of individual bunches.
Changes to the frequency of the taskomatic schedules is not recommended but changing the time of day when the daily tasks take place can be done.
Navigate to Admin -> Task Schedules. There is a list of defined task schedules with given frequencies as Quartz strings. After navigating to selected schedule, you can edit Quartz string manually or select values from form.
| Task Name | DB Name | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.DailySummary | daily-summary | Sends out email on a daily basis with a summary of out-of-date systems |
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.ErrataMailer | errata-mailer | Sends email to org admins for each errata alert, eg: "RHN Errata Alert: RHBA-2008:0959-3.." |
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.ErrataQueue | errata-queue | Processes errata that are synced from satellite-sync and sets them up to be ready for the ErrataMailer to send the email notifications. |
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.ErrataCacheTask | errata-cache | Calculates the 'errata cache' information which is used in the GUI to display what systems need what errata. |
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.KickstartCleanup | kickstart-cleanup | Cleans up old kickstart sessions that have gone stale. |
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.PackageCleanup | package-cleanup | Physically deletes rpms from /var/satellite that are 'marked' for deletion in the GUI. |
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.ChannelRepodata | channel-repodata | Prototype to be used to regenerate channel metadata. |
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.SatelliteCertificateCheck | sat-cert-check | Checks to see if the Satellite Certificate is expired and if so starts sending email with warning. |
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.SandboxCleanup | sandbox-cleanup | Deletes stale Configuration Management system sandboxes. |
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.SessionCleanup | session-cleanup | Deletes expired GUI Http sessions from the pxtsessions database table. |
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.SummaryPopulation | summary-population | Works in tandem with "DailySummary" to determine what orgs should get the daily summary email. |
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.RepoSyncTask | repo-sync | Used for syncing repos (like yum repos) to a channel. Calls a python script. |
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.SatSyncTask | satellite-sync | Calls satellite-sync tool to sync channels. |
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.KickstartFileSyncTask | kickstartfile-sync | Syncs kickstart profiles that were generated using the wizard. |
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.CobblerSyncTask | cobbler-sync | Syncing cobbler data. Communicates with cobbler through XMLRPC. |
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.CompareConfigFilesTask | compare-config-files | Schedules a comparison of config files on all systems. |
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.ClearLogHistory | clear-log-history | Clears taskomatic run log history. |
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.ChangeLogCleanUp | cleanup-packagechangelog-data | Deletes orphaned packages changelog data. |
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.RebootActionCleanup | reboot-action-cleanup | Cleans up stale reboot action data if it is older than 6 hours. |
| com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.AutoErrataTask | auto-errata | This is what automatically schedules automatic errata update actions. |
All Taskomatic logging is controlled by the log4j configuration file /usr/share/rhn/classes/log4j.properties. Taskomatic task engine and individual task log output is configured to go to /var/log/rhn/rhn_taskomatic_daemon.log.
Make sure that these lines exist in the log4j.properties file
log4j.appender.TaskomaticAppender=org.apache.log4j.FileAppender
log4j.appender.TaskomaticAppender.file=/var/log/rhn/rhn_taskomatic.log
log4j.appender.TaskomaticAppender.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.TaskomaticAppender.layout.ConversionPattern=[%d] %-5p %c - %m%n
To enable Taskomatic task engine logging add or edit the following line in log4j.properties:
log4j.logger.com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic=DEBUG,TaskomaticAppender
To enable coarse-grained task logging add or edit the following line in log4j.properties:
log4j.logger.com.redhat.rhn.task=DEBUG,TaskomaticAppender
To enable task-specific execution logging add or edit the following line, as needed, in log4j.properties:
log4j.logger.<insert_task_name_here>=DEBUG,TaskomaticAppender
The Taskomatic daemon process can be started in console mode as well. This is helpful in diagnosing problems where Taskomatic itself will not run:
sudo /sbin/service taskomatic stop
sudo /sbin/service taskomatic console
See also: LogDriverSetup
