Cron_enabled config goes back to uncheck

Cron_enabled config goes back to uncheck

by Hugo Ribeiro -
Number of replies: 7
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Hi all,
I was given a fresh Moodle 4.2 installation on Ubuntu 20.04 AWS Lightsail (I believe) and we are having issues setting up cron.
Oddly, the setting "cron_enabled" was off (the default option is on naturally) and each  I change it, it goes back to off and so cron.php isn't running by cli.

Any idea on what might be causing this strange behaviour?
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In reply to Hugo Ribeiro

Re: Cron_enabled config goes back to uncheck

by Ken Task -
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4.2 has issues with cron ...
When you actually run cron from command line, what does that look like?  Does it actually finish, or does it go into a loop after adhoc task - appearing to be in a never ending loop as it goes back to adhoc task briefly.

Saga here:

@Sergio ... you reading this ... can't find your posting on how to fix this now! sad

'SoS', Ken


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In reply to Ken Task

Ri: Re: Cron_enabled config goes back to uncheck

by Sergio Rabellino -
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What you're searching for it's here:

Site administration > Server > Tasks > Task processing > Keep alive time  (https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=446203#p1793563)

Setting it to 0, you got the cron.php behaviour pre 4.2. However, I would not consider this as a fix, this setting has it's "sense": now those who install moodle should carefully evaluate the balance between compute load and moodle immediacy on task execution.

I read about the main problem of the "unchecked" cron: maybe I'm wrong but i don't think it's related to this. I would try to diagnose the caching level (if any) or the database by reading the contents of mdl_config table AND the contents of mdl_config_log for records where the field name contains cron_enabled.

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In reply to Hugo Ribeiro

Re: Cron_enabled config goes back to uncheck

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
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Hi Hugo

You said, "cron.php isn't running by cli". Could you paste a screen-shot of the terminal, when you run cron.php in the shell?

As others have pointed out, there may be two issues:
- Caused by MDL-77186: Set Site administration > Server > Tasks > Task processing > Keep alive time to 0 and see whether it helps.

I have initiated the discussion MDL-77186 "Add a keep-alive setting to admin/cli/cron.php", Release 4.2. Effect on performance? in the Hardware and performance forum.

- cron_enabled going back to off. Can't be related to the first one. Or do you have other parameters which won't stay.
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Cron_enabled config goes back to uncheck

by Hugo Ribeiro -
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It's a rather new install but It seems to be the only setting that doesn't "sick". On the db, the setting is 0, and the config_log shows a bunch of entries changing cron_enabled to 1 (while it always stay as 0).

When I run cron.php in the shell I get "Cron is disabled. Use --force to continue" and it sure continues if I force it.
I thought It could be something related to the php version. I hadn't noticed we were using 8.2. But now we are using 8.1 and we get the same behaviour.
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In reply to Hugo Ribeiro

Re: Cron_enabled config goes back to uncheck

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
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Then the cron settings have changed since 4.1. It has Administration > Security > Site security settings : Cron execution via command line only (cronclionly) and : Cron password for remote access" (cronremotepassword). Sorry, I'm not on 4.2, not even on 4.1 for production. Hope some bleeding-edge admins will report.

Edit: Rel. 4.1 also has Administration > Server > Tasks > Task processing : Enable cron (cron_enabled). That must be the setting that won't stick.
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Cron_enabled config goes back to uncheck

by Hugo Ribeiro -
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Thank you all. I haven't been able to get it to work, but I installed a fresh 4.2 on the same server and found no issues.
While this is very odd, I'm tented to do a fresh install.
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In reply to Hugo Ribeiro

Re: Cron_enabled config goes back to uncheck

by Hugo Ribeiro -
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Did a fresh installation and everything works fine. Cron is now running.
Thank you
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