Cron

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* Gets a new keytab for username/cron
 
* Gets a new keytab for username/cron
 
* Sends the job id as well as keytab to a remctl script via command-line arguments
 
* Sends the job id as well as keytab to a remctl script via command-line arguments
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The daemon is run on dionysus- see the source in /afs/.ugcs/ugcs-admin/source for source and debian packages. (multiplecron-server)
  
 
==Client-side portion==
 
==Client-side portion==
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* Send the output to the user
 
* Send the output to the user
  
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The client code is in /afs/.ugcs/ugcs-admin/source, and is built into the debian package multiplecron-client
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==Nagios tests==
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* Makes sure the cron daemon is running and running under its k5start process
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* The test user ("test") runs a cron job every 5 minutes that touches a file in its home dir.  Nagios checks the file age of this time to make sure it is getting its mtime updated regularly.
 
==Security==
 
==Security==
 
* User security is maintained because a new keytab is generated each time.  This prevents an old keytab from being stolen and re-used.
 
* User security is maintained because a new keytab is generated each time.  This prevents an old keytab from being stolen and re-used.

Latest revision as of 21:42, 20 March 2010

Getting cron services available to users is a work in progress. Presently, cron is being architected with a central server that calls a Remctl script on shellservers which takes care of running the user's cron program.

Contents

Daemon

  • Figures out which jobs need to be run
  • Gets a new keytab for username/cron
  • Sends the job id as well as keytab to a remctl script via command-line arguments

The daemon is run on dionysus- see the source in /afs/.ugcs/ugcs-admin/source for source and debian packages. (multiplecron-server)

Client-side portion

  • Figure out which user we are trying to be and which job we are running
  • Change to that user's home dir and UID/GID
  • Create a tempfile with the keytab we were given and get kerberos stuff for it
  • Run the user's job
  • If the user's job takes more than the time before it would get run again, kill it
  • Send the output to the user

The client code is in /afs/.ugcs/ugcs-admin/source, and is built into the debian package multiplecron-client

Nagios tests

  • Makes sure the cron daemon is running and running under its k5start process
  • The test user ("test") runs a cron job every 5 minutes that touches a file in its home dir. Nagios checks the file age of this time to make sure it is getting its mtime updated regularly.

Security

  • User security is maintained because a new keytab is generated each time. This prevents an old keytab from being stolen and re-used.
  • The remctl script has a number of security checks to prevent unauthorized users from using it.
  • If a shellserver gets rooted, then they will be able to steal the user/cron keytab and modify a user's files. This could be mitigated by running cron jobs only on non-login machines... which defeats the point of this system to some extent.
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