Dreamhost cron job settings for OS Ticket

Hey guys,

Below are the correct settings to enable cron jobs with an OS Ticket installation on Dreamhost.

Steps to configuring OSTicket Cron jobs on Dreamhost

1. Make sure you have shell user access.

To get shell user access, log in to your Dreamhost web panel and click “Users”=>”Manage Users”. You should see the screen below.

2. Give your user Shell Access

Click on “edit” under the user you want to give Shell access to. Make sure you click the “shell” radio button as seen below, then hit save.

3. Add new cron job

Once changes are saved, navigate to “Goodies”=>Cron Jobs=>Add New Cron Job

1. In the User: field, select the name that you just gave shell access to
2. In the Title: field, give your cron job and name (you can make this up)
3. In the Email output to: field, enter a valid email address to receive notifications of successful or failed executions of your script. *This is not required* however, it is very useful in troubleshooting the setting up of your first cron job. You can remove this email address at a later time if you do not wish to receive emails.
4. In the Status: field, select “enabled”
5. Command to run: field. This is where the majority of Dreamhost users have problems. According the OS Ticket, the proper format of the entry should be this. (ignore the quotations)
   */5 * * * * nobody /path/to/php /path/to/api/cron.php

   However, dreamhost has you set this up differently. 
   1. The first */5*** are time settings, which you should ignore. Dreamhost lets you configure the time settings below.
   2. Next you need to figure out your “/path/to/php/“. For Dreamhost, this is “/usr/local/php5/bin/php” Enter that EXACTLY as it reads between the quotation marks.
   3. Next, add a space and enter your "/path/to/api/cron.php". For me, this is “yourwebsiteURL.com/support/api/cron.php” because I installed OSTicket into a sub directory of my website called “support”
   4. Combe Steps 2 & 3 so your Command to run: looks exactly like below (enter your own domain and exact path to cron.php)
      

      /usr/local/php5/bin/php yourwebsiteurl.com/support/api/cron.php"

4. Tell Dreamhost when to run your cron job

Under When to run: configure your time using the web page. I configured my cron job to run every 10 minutes. When all your settings are entered, hit “save” or “edit” to make your changes go into affect. You must wait 10 minutes (or whatever you set your time interval) to verify whether you cron job worked or not. After it is executed, it will send you an email verifying success or failure.

Below is a screenshot of the final settings

THATS ALL

Now test your cron. Wait for it to run on the scheduled time. Mine is set to run every 10 minutes, so it runs at 12:00, 12:10, 12:20, and so on… Starting on the first run, you should get email messages for any successes or fails. If you do not see the email message, check your Spam box. Some email accounts like to Spam emails from dreamhost. If everything is going well, and you do not wish to receive emails upon every success, then read the note below.

Note: after "cron.php", I have added ">/dev/null" which instructs Dreamhost to only email me IF the cron job fails. I hope this post saved you time and headache. If you have any questions or I can be more clear, leave a comment or email me at mmcverry@workforceod.com

-M