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LFCSOperations DeploymentSingle Linux VMEasy

Schedule jobs with a systemd timer and cron

Scenario lfcs-ops-003 · about 5 minutes · 7 points · 5 grader checks

Run a backup script every day at 02:30 through a systemd timer that catches up missed runs, and add a weekday cron job for another user.

  • systemd-timer
  • cron
  • scheduling
  • jobs

What you will practise

  • Write a oneshot service and a calendar timer
  • Make a timer catch up runs missed while the host was off
  • Write a user crontab entry

Start this lab

With the CLI installed and signed in, this command provisions a fresh Ubuntu 24.04 LTS virtual machine on your Mac, applies the scenario setup and prints the task below.

goldenkube start lfcs-ops-003

Task

The task text exactly as the CLI shows it. Solve it on the machine, then run goldenkube submit.

1. Create backup-etc.service, a oneshot service that runs /usr/local/sbin/backup-etc.sh, and backup-etc.timer, which starts it every day at 02:30. Runs missed while the host was powered off must be made up at the next boot. The timer must be active now and enabled at boot. Do not run the backup now. 2. For the user ops, add a cron job that runs /usr/bin/df -h > /tmp/ops-df.txt every 15 minutes, Monday to Friday.

Requirements and details

Certification
LFCS · Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator
Domain
Operations Deployment
Difficulty
Easy
Environment
Single Linux VM
Recommended time
5 minutes
Points
7
Grader checks
5
Operating system
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Minimum CLI version
0.1.0
Scenario version
1
Published

Grading runs locally: 5 state checks read your machine when you submit; the scenario passes when every check passes. Hints, the reference solution and the check definitions are available only inside the CLI, not on this page.

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