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Plesk administrator receives mails: Cron error: /usr/sbin/ntpdate: not found

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Benjamin Wessel
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Plesk for Linux kb: technical ABT: Group A

Applicable to:

  • Plesk for Linux

Symptoms

Emails with the following error are sent to Plesk server administrator:

Subject: Cron <root@example.com> /usr/sbin/ntpdate -b -s 3.pool.ntp.org  
/bin/sh: 1: /usr/sbin/ntpdate: not found

Cause

The package ntpdate used by scheduled task is not installed.

Resolution

When ntpdate is not used

Note: In modern operating systems nptd, chrony or systemd-timesyncd may be installed by default and ntpdate package is deprecated or not available. It is suggested to synchronize server time using NTP Timesync extension instead.

  1. Log into Plesk
  2. Navigate to Tools & Settings > Scheduled Tasks (Cron jobs)
  3. Select the scheduled task /usr/sbin/ntpdate -b -s [n].pool.ntp.org:
    Remove ntpdate scheduled task
  4. Click Remove
When ntpdate should be used

  1. Connect to the server via SSH

  2. Install the ntpdate package:

    • On Debian / Ubuntu operating systems:

      # apt-get update && apt-get install ntpdate

    • On RHEL / CentOS / Cloudlinux operating systems:

      # yum install ntpdate

Comments

6 comments

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  • Avatar
    Jose Maria Terry Jimenez

    There is no ntpdate for CentOS 8, this is an installation restored from a CentOS6 backup.

    Maybe a "lost" Plesk cron? Not in /etc/cron*

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    Sancho Garces (Edited )

    thx

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    Md Rasel Khan

    Thanks! This command works on my Debian 10.6.

    # apt-get update && apt-get install ntpdate

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    Daniel Pirker

    Works on Ubuntu - Thanks

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    DynamicHosting

    This solution does not work on a fresh CentOS 8 install.

     

    [root@dhvps ~]# dnf install ntpdate
    Last metadata expiration check: 1:43:08 ago on Thu 24 Dec 2020 10:45:16 AM PST.
    No match for argument: ntpdate
    Error: Unable to find a match: ntpdate
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    Jose Maria Terry Jimenez

    ntpdate not exist for CentOS 8, it uses Chrony for NTP, so, to solve this, install chrony (it must be installed by default), and disable this cron task from plesk (the one of ntpdate) and solved!.

    You may want to add a cron for chrony but is unnecessary as it has it's own service

    Perhaps Plesk must make this automatic for this OS and others don't has ntpdate.

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