Athreya aka Maneshwar

Posted on Jun 20 • Edited on Sep 28

Automating Cron Job Setup with Ansible Like a Pro

#programming #devops #webdev #beginners

Hello, I'm Maneshwar. I'm working on FreeDevTools online currently building **one place for all dev tools, cheat codes, and TLDRs* — a free, open-source hub where developers can quickly find and use tools without any hassle of searching all over the internet.

Hi there! I'm . Right now, I’m building , a first-of-its-kind tool that helps you automatically index API endpoints across all your repositories. makes it easier to discover, understand, and interact with APIs in large infrastructures.

Keeping servers clean, logs trimmed, and disk spac
e healthy?

Cron jobs do the grunt work — but managing them manually? Pain.

That’s where Ansible saves the day.

Here's how I automated system maintenance jobs with a reusable Ansible role called cron-master.

Project Structure

ansible-galaxy init roles/cron-master --offline

ansible/
├─ README.md
├─ ansible.cfg
├─ cron-master.yml              # playbook to run cron-master role
├─ hosts.ini                    # inventory file
├─ install_ansible.sh           # bootstrap script
├─ requirements.yml
├─ roles/
│  └─ cron-master/
│     ├─ tasks/                 # main logic broken into files
│     │  ├─ main.yml
│     │  ├─ crons.yml
│     │  ├─ deps.yml
│     │  ├─ clean.yml
│     │  └─ space.yml
│     ├─ templates/             # cron scripts and job list
│     │  ├─ crons.j2
│     │  ├─ clean.sh.j2
│     │  └─ space.sh.j2
│     ├─ defaults/vars/meta/... usual role files

Installing Dependencies

We need basic packages and a specific version of cronitor to monitor jobs.

roles/cron-master/tasks/deps.yml

- name: Ensure dependencies are installed
  apt:
    name:
      - bc
      - curl
    state: present

- name: Check cronitor version
  command: cronitor --version
  register: cronitor_version
  changed_when: false
  failed_when: false

- name: Install specific cronitor version
  when: "'30.3' not in cronitor_version.stdout"
  block:
    - name: Download cronitor 30.3
      get_url:
        url: https://github.com/cronitorio/cronitor-cli/releases/download/30.3/linux_amd64.tar.gz
        dest: /tmp/cronitor.tar.gz

    - name: Extract and move binary
      unarchive:
        src: /tmp/cronitor.tar.gz
        dest: /tmp
        remote_src: yes

    - name: Move cronitor binary
      command: mv /tmp/cronitor /usr/local/bin/cronitor

Defining Cron Jobs

I put my cron jobs in a crons.j2 template, so I can maintain them like code:

roles/cron-master/templates/crons.j2

0 0 * * * sudo truncate -s 0 /var/log/nginx/access.log
0 0 * * * sudo truncate -s 0 /var/log/nginx/nginx_error.log
0 0 * * * rm /var/log/nginx/*.gz

Then loaded it in crons.yml:

- name: Add custom cron jobs to root crontab
  vars:
    lines: "{{ lookup('template', 'crons.j2').splitlines() }}"
  cron:
    name: "{{ (idx > 0 and lines[idx-1].strip().startswith('#')) | ternary(lines[idx-1] | trim | regex_replace('^#\\s*', ''), ' '.join(item.split()[5:])) }}"
    minute: "{{ item.split()[0] }}"
    hour: "{{ item.split()[1] }}"
    day: "{{ item.split()[2] }}"
    month: "{{ item.split()[3] }}"
    weekday: "{{ item.split()[4] }}"
    job: "{{ ' '.join(item.split()[5:]) }}"
    user: root
  loop: "{{ lines }}"
  loop_control:
    index_var: idx
  when: item | trim | length > 0 and not item.strip().startswith('#')

Custom Scripts for Cleaning & Space Checks

I used templates like clean.sh.j2 and space.sh.j2, then scheduled them via clean.yml and space.yml.

Master Task File

main.yml ties it all together:

- name: Install dependencies
  include_tasks: deps.yml

- name: Deploy clean script
  include_tasks: clean.yml

- name: Deploy space check cron
  include_tasks: space.yml

- name: Add custom cron jobs
  include_tasks: crons.yml

Running the Role

Use a playbook like this:

cron-master.yml

- name: Set up cron jobs on servers
  hosts: all
  become: true
  roles:
    - cron-master

Then run it:

ansible-playbook -i hosts.ini cron-master.yml

Why This Rocks

🔁 Idempotent cron management
📋 All cron jobs version-controlled
🔎 Easy to test in isolation with ansible-playbook --tags
🔐 Secure and predictable

Bonus Tip: Test with Vagrant or Docker

You can easily test this role in a local VM or container to be safe before pushing to prod.

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