Linux Servers & Cron

Pakyas is perfect for monitoring traditional cron jobs and systemd services on Linux servers. The simplest way to integrate is using the pakyas monitor command wrapper.

Prerequisites

1. Install the CLI:

   curl -fsSL https://pakyas.com/install.sh | bash

2. Authenticate:

   pakyas login

Cron Jobs

The classic use case is wrapping a cron job so you know if it fails or stops running.

1. Identify your job

Suppose you have a backup script running nightly:

0 2 * * * /usr/local/bin/backup-db.sh

2. Wrap it with Pakyas

Simply prepend pakyas monitor <slug> --:

0 2 * * * pakyas monitor db-backup -- /usr/local/bin/backup-db.sh

Ensure db-backup matches the slug of a check you’ve created in Pakyas. If the check doesn’t exist, Pakyas will return an error (or auto-create it if configured).

3. Handling Output

By default, cron emails output to the system user. Pakyas captures stdout and stderr and sends the tail of the logs to the dashboard upon failure.

To silence cron emails but keep Pakyas monitoring:

0 2 * * * pakyas monitor db-backup -- /usr/local/bin/backup-db.sh >/dev/null 2>&1

Systemd Services

For systemd services (oneshot or timers), you can use ExecStart.

Example: Oneshot Service

[Unit]
Description=Daily Cleanup

[Service]
Type=oneshot
# Set API key for reliable auth in background services
Environment="PAKYAS_API_KEY=pk_live_..."
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/pakyas monitor cleanup-job -- /usr/local/bin/cleanup.py

Common Pitfalls

User Environment

Cron runs with a minimal environment. Ensure pakyas is in the PATH or use the absolute path (e.g., /usr/local/bin/pakyas).

Authentication

Interactive login (pakyas login) stores credentials in the user’s home directory (~/.config/pakyas/). If your cron job runs as root or another user, it won’t have access to your token.

Solution 1: Use the PAKYAS_API_KEY environment variable.

0 2 * * * PAKYAS_API_KEY=pk_live_... pakyas monitor db-backup -- /path/to/script

Solution 2: Use the check’s public UUID with --public_id (no API key required).

0 2 * * * PAKYAS_PUBLIC_ID=550e8400-... pakyas monitor --public_id "$PAKYAS_PUBLIC_ID" -- /path/to/script

Overlapping Jobs

If your job takes longer than its schedule interval, you might have overlapping runs. Use flock to prevent this:

0 * * * * flock -n /var/lock/myjob.lock pakyas monitor hourly-sync -- ./sync.sh