Ansible Role: cron

Manages scheduled jobs on a host using either classic cron entries (written to /etc/cron.d) or systemd timers (with their backing service units). Jobs can be defined once in shared group vars and selectively applied per environment, and jobs you no longer want can be declaratively removed.

Requirements

• Ansible (ansible-core) 2.17 or higher.
• A systemd-based host for the timer features; the cron features work on any host with cron. Tested platforms: EL 9 / EL 10 (Rocky, Alma, and other RHEL rebuilds), Amazon Linux 2023, Fedora, and Debian 12 / 13.

The role's tasks require root; run the role with become: true (set it on the play or role include — the role does not set become itself).

Installation

ansible-galaxy role install rhythmictech.cron

Or in a requirements.yml:

roles:
  - name: rhythmictech.cron

The env variable

Crontabs and timers are commonly defined once in shared group vars but should only be applied in some environments. Each item may carry an envs list, and the role applies it only when the playbook-supplied env value is in that list:

when: env in item.envs | default(cron_default_envs)

• env is set by the playbook (typically from inventory/group vars or --extra-vars) and must be defined when the role runs. It is not defaulted.
• If an item omits envs, it falls back to cron_default_envs (['prod', 'ops', 'test', 'dev'] by default), so it applies in every recognized environment.

Note: removal tasks (crontabs_remove, systemd_timers_remove) are not filtered by env — removals always run so an item can be cleaned up regardless of the environment that created it.

Role Variables

Variable	Default	Description
env	(unset, required)	Current environment name; gates which items apply.
cron_default_envs	['prod','ops','test','dev']	Envs an item applies to when its own envs is omitted.
crontabs	[]	Cron jobs to create.
crontabs_remove	[]	Cron jobs to remove.
systemd_timers	[]	systemd timers (and backing services) to create.
systemd_timers_remove	[]	systemd timers to remove.

crontabs item

Key	Required	Description
name	yes	Unique name (used as the /etc/cron.d/cron-<name> file and comment marker).
command	yes	Command to run.
user	yes	User the job runs as.
minute / hour / day / month / weekday	no	Cron schedule fields (default * via omit).
envs	no	Environments this job applies to.

systemd_timers item

Key	Required	Description
name	yes	Unit base name; creates <name>.timer and <name>.service.
command	yes	ExecStart for the backing service.
description	no	Unit description (defaults to name).
user	no	Service User= (default root).
service_type	no	Service Type= (default simple).
envvars	no	List of {name, value} rendered as Environment=.
on_calendar	no	Raw OnCalendar= expression (e.g. daily, Mon *-*-* 00:00:00). Overrides the component fields below.
weekday/year/month/day/hour/minute/second	no	Components used to build OnCalendar= when on_calendar is not set.
persistent	no	Sets Persistent= (run missed jobs after downtime).
randomized_delay_sec	no	Sets RandomizedDelaySec=.
accuracy_sec	no	Sets AccuracySec=.
service_unit_custom_directives	no	Extra raw lines in the service [Unit] section.
service_custom_directives	no	Extra raw lines in the service [Service] section.
timer_unit_custom_directives	no	Extra raw lines in the timer [Unit] section.
timer_custom_directives	no	Extra raw lines in the timer [Timer] section.
envs	no	Environments this timer applies to.

<name>_remove items only need a name.

Example Playbook

- hosts: all
  become: true
  vars:
    env: prod
  roles:
    - role: rhythmictech.cron
      vars:
        crontabs:
          - name: nightly-backup
            user: root
            command: /usr/local/bin/backup.sh
            hour: "2"
            minute: "30"
            envs: ['prod', 'ops']

        systemd_timers:
          - name: cleanup
            command: /usr/local/bin/cleanup.sh
            description: Daily temp cleanup
            on_calendar: daily
            persistent: true
            randomized_delay_sec: 300

        crontabs_remove:
          - name: old-job

        systemd_timers_remove:
          - name: legacy-timer

Local Development & Testing

The role is tested with Molecule against systemd-enabled containers for each supported platform, and linted with ansible-lint (production profile). CI runs both on every pull request.

pip install ansible-core ansible-lint molecule "molecule-plugins[docker]"

ansible-lint          # lint (includes yamllint)
molecule test         # full test cycle: create, converge, idempotence, verify, destroy

# Test a specific distro (default: rockylinux9)
MOLECULE_DISTRO=debian13 molecule test

See CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution guidelines.

License

MIT.

About Rhythmic

This role is maintained by Rhythmic Technologies, an AWS-focused managed services provider. We're always looking for good people, practices, and tools — issues and pull requests are welcome.