ITFlow Migrated to New Server, Cron No Longer Works

matth

Just what it says on the tin -- I recently migrated my ITFlow install to another server and I'm finding that the mail queue no longer works. I suspect other cron items may be broken as well.

There was some conflicting information on how to restore the DB for ITFlow here on the forum. I saw a thread where it said to go thru the ITFlow setup, and another one that said you wouldn't. In my case, I installed phpmyadmin on the new system and logged in as the new itflow user that was generated. I then dropped the itflow database and created a new one, then imported the data from the dump I did from the previous ITFlow install via phpmyadmin. From there, everything seemed to work fine. I replaced the config.php and uploads/ folder with what existed on the old system and applied new permissions.

As part of troubleshooting cron, I have regenerated a cron key and adjusted my crontab as follows: (For clarity, [KEY] is censored in the following context.)

0 2 * * * sudo -u www-data php /var/www/portal.hodgesvcs.com/cron.php [KEY]
* * * * * sudo -u www-data php /var/www/portal.hodgesvcs.com/cron_ticket_email_parser.php [KEY]
* * * * * sudo -u www-data php /var/www/portal.hodgesvcs.com/cron_mail_queue.php [KEY] logger 2>&1 | logger -t itflow-email

I am forwarding logs to syslog to ensure I get more in-depth information.

In my syslog, I see things like:

2024-11-10T19:58:01.155198-06:00 itflow-1 CRON[1406]: (www-data) CMD (/usr/bin/php /var/www/portal.hodgesvcs.com/cron_ticket_email_parser.php [KEY])
2024-11-10T19:58:01.155292-06:00 itflow-1 CRON[1401]: (CRON) info (No MTA installed, discarding output)
2024-11-10T19:58:01.155960-06:00 itflow-1 CRON[1400]: (CRON) info (No MTA installed, discarding output)
2024-11-10T19:58:01.195056-06:00 itflow-1 CRON[1398]: (CRON) info (No MTA installed, discarding output)
2024-11-10T19:58:56.690097-06:00 itflow-1 crontab[1414]: (root) BEGIN EDIT (root)
2024-11-10T19:59:01.273175-06:00 itflow-1 CRON[1428]: (www-data) CMD (/usr/bin/php /var/www/portal.hodgesvcs.com/cron_mail_queue.php [KEY])
2024-11-10T19:59:01.276035-06:00 itflow-1 CRON[1429]: (root) CMD (-u www-data /usr/bin/php /var/www/portal.hodgesvcs.com/cron_ticket_email_parser.php [KEY])
2024-11-10T19:59:01.276248-06:00 itflow-1 CRON[1430]: (www-data) CMD (/usr/bin/php /var/www/portal.hodgesvcs.com/cron_ticket_email_parser.php [KEY])
2024-11-10T19:59:01.276463-06:00 itflow-1 CRON[1431]: (root) CMD (-u www-data /usr/bin/php /var/www/portal.hodgesvcs.com/cron_mail_queue.php [KEY] logger 2>&1 | logger -t itflow-email)
2024-11-10T19:59:01.276514-06:00 itflow-1 CRON[1427]: (CRON) info (No MTA installed, discarding output)
2024-11-10T19:59:01.279027-06:00 itflow-1 CRON[1426]: (CRON) info (No MTA installed, discarding output)
2024-11-10T19:59:01.320278-06:00 itflow-1 CRON[1424]: (CRON) info (No MTA installed, discarding output)
2024-11-10T19:59:55.046410-06:00 itflow-1 crontab[1414]: (root) END EDIT (root)
2024-11-10T20:00:01.395554-06:00 itflow-1 CRON[1450]: (www-data) CMD (/usr/bin/php /var/www/portal.hodgesvcs.com/cron_mail_queue.php [KEY])
2024-11-10T20:00:01.397873-06:00 itflow-1 CRON[1451]: (root) CMD (-u www-data /usr/bin/php /var/www/portal.hodgesvcs.com/cron_ticket_email_parser.php [KEY])
2024-11-10T20:00:01.398051-06:00 itflow-1 CRON[1448]: (CRON) info (No MTA installed, discarding output)
2024-11-10T20:00:01.400346-06:00 itflow-1 systemd[1]: Starting sysstat-collect.service - system activity accounting tool...
2024-11-10T20:00:01.402664-06:00 itflow-1 CRON[1452]: (root) CMD (-u www-data /usr/bin/php /var/www/portal.hodgesvcs.com/cron_mail_queue.php [KEY] logger 2>&1 | logger -t itflow-email)
2024-11-10T20:00:01.405834-06:00 itflow-1 CRON[1453]: (www-data) CMD (/usr/bin/php /var/www/portal.hodgesvcs.com/cron_ticket_email_parser.php [KEY])
2024-11-10T20:00:01.408711-06:00 itflow-1 CRON[1447]: (CRON) info (No MTA installed, discarding output)
2024-11-10T20:00:01.411872-06:00 itflow-1 systemd[1]: sysstat-collect.service: Deactivated successfully.
2024-11-10T20:00:01.411954-06:00 itflow-1 systemd[1]: Finished sysstat-collect.service - system activity accounting tool.
2024-11-10T20:00:01.449529-06:00 itflow-1 CRON[1445]: (CRON) info (No MTA installed, discarding output)

I'm not sure if there's any relevant information there, but I'm seeing that emails do not send as they should anymore. Can confirm all other settings are like they were on the previous install.

Bigbug

matth did you do crontab -e or sudo crontab -e ?

matth

Bigbug I am logged in as root doing crontab -e

wrongecho

Hey

Your Cron entry seems incorrect. You have:

* * * * * sudo -u www-data php /var/www/portal.hodgesvcs.com/cron_mail_queue.php [KEY]logger2>&1 | logger -t itflow-email

You should have (only one mention of logger)

* * * * * sudo -u www-data php /var/www/portal.hodgesvcs.com/cron_mail_queue.php [KEY] 2>&1 | logger -t itflow-email

matth

wrongecho Oh thanks for pointing this out -- this was actually an issue with how I copy/pasted. It's not actually that way in crontab -- I'll update the original post.

Edit: I take that back, I can't edit it now lol

wrongecho

I see.. What output do you get if you comment out the Cron job and manually run the mail queue via bash?

matth

wrongecho It looks like I might have been missing logs or just not logging them correctly.

I commented out the cron jobs and executed the mail queue by itself and after a long wait, I got the following:

ITFlow - Failed to send email: SMTP Error: Could not connect to SMTP host.
Failed to connect to server SMTP server error:
Failed to connect to server SMTP code: 110 Additional SMTP info: Connection timed out

After some more digging, I think this provider restricts standard SMTP ports by default to prevent spam. If this is the case, I'll raise a ticket with the provider and see what I can do about that.

I'll update here if this resolves my problem!

On an unrelated note -- what would you say is the proper way to migrate? I did the obvious and backed up the config.php and uploads/ folder and took a SQL dump of the database. On the new server, should I or should I not go thru with initial setup? To get mine working, I actually had to ignore the setup, drop the first time itflow database, create a new one and then import the database.

This would be instance #2 of an upstream provider breaking something in regards to ITFlow lol. Just my luck.

matth

matth It was, in fact, the upstream provider trolling me again. Issue is resolved!

wrongecho

Haha, glad you got it fixed.

Personally to migrate I'd dump the database, copy the files and then manually configure Apache & Cron. You can install over the top and import your database and uploads folder, but you'll have to adjust the Cron key.

If you're feeling particularly generous, feel free to write a guide on your experience 😉