Description of problem: Accounts defined in LDAP are not able to run cron jobs. They can be created, but upon time to run, the following message appears in /var/log/cron: Jun 9 14:31:00 hourhl99 crond[1458]: (nguyto01) ORPHAN (no passwd entry) I would expect cron to find accounts via NSS definitions (files ldap) rather than just files. Unsure if this is also valid for NIS accounts. How reproducible: always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Set up system to use LDAP accounts 2. Define an LDAP account and create a cron entry 3. Watch /var/log/cron when time comes - no job runs, log entry made
This is fixed in vixie-cron-4.1-+ .
I ran into this behavior in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 R6 today. Mar 1 10:46:01 cauldron crond[885]: (rbulling) ORPHAN (no passwd entry) The workaround in bug 64379 worked for me (stop crond, restart nscd, start crond): https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=64379 A cron job ran for me just fine once I'd done that.
This problem will be resolved in a future major release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Red Hat does not currently plan to provide a resolution for this in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux update for currently deployed systems. With the goal of minimizing risk of change for deployed systems, and in response to customer and partner requirements, Red Hat takes a conservative approach when evaluating changes for inclusion in maintenance updates for currently deployed products. The primary objectives of update releases are to enable new hardware platform support and to resolve critical defects.