TrueSight Capacity Optimization (TSCO) schedules several 'watchdog' scripts to run every minute in cron to make sure that the TSCO processes are up and running. If the machine does not allow access to cron the "Crontab cannot be used" error will be generated.
These scripts are not required, but are very strongly recommended, for TSCO to run in an environment. They provide additional resilience to the TSCO environment by restarting TSCO processes if they fail or after a system reboot. Without those scripts scheduled in cron it would be necessary to manually restart TSCO processes if they failed (and during the period those processes were down TSCO may be unavailable or degraded).
The "Preparing to install the Application Server and ETL Engine" documentation page covers the steps to grant the TSCO Installation Owner cron access:
https://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/btco2002/Preparing+to+install+the+Application+Server+and+ETL+Engine
The TSCO product doesn't register itself as a system service it relies on the watchdog scripts to restart the TSCO processes if they aren't running but haven't been manually stopped (including after a system reboot).
A good way to test the underlying problem is by running the 'crontab -e' command.
The most common error is:
You (cpit) are not allowed to use this program (crontab)
See crontab (1) for more information
To fix this error you normally would just need to add the BCO installation owner user (in the above example 'cpit') to the /etc/cron.allow file (which will request root access).
Another error is:
Authentication token is no longer valid; new one required
You (cpit) are not allowed to access to (crontab) because of pam configuration.
This generally means that the password for the BCO Installation Owner account has expired and needs to be reset.
A less common, but more serious error is:
Permission denied
You (cpit) are not allowed to access to (crontab) because of pam configuration.
To fix that error it will be necessary to engage your Linux system administration team to review why the OS is unable to grant crontab access to the BCO Installation Owner even after it has been added to the /etc/cron.allow file.
Q: What options are available if the TSCO Installation Owner isn't authorized to use cron on the TSCO AS or EE servers?
If the TSCO Installation Owner isn't authorized by policy to use cron it would be necessary to schedule the BCO Scheduler watchdog script scheduled to run another way. That will ensure that if there is a problem, for example with the TSCO Scheduler java process, that it will be restarted on the machine.
TSCO relies on the watchdog scripts to restart the TSCO components if they terminate. For example, in the TSCO Scheduler itself there is code that will terminate the running scheduler if there is a corruption in the communication channel between the TSCO Scheduler and the TSCO Scheduling Supervisor running within the Datahub (since on restart of the BCO Scheduler the queues will be rebuilt cleanly).
So, you'll need to get that watchdog script executing via some method in your environment.
It can be scheduled via any scheduler -- it just needs to be executed as the TSCO Installation Owner (by default 'cpit') user. So if cron is forbidden there should be some substitute scheduler available in the environment and it would be necessary to configure the watchdog scripts to run via that mechanism.
Related Products:
- BMC TrueSight Capacity Optimization
