Revision as of 15:27, 9 March 2016

This page details some of the common problems and errors which might occur when running the WHMCS cron job.

Troubleshooting

There are several techniques available for troubleshooting problems which one may encounter with the cron job, in descending order of verbosity they are:

Run the cron job in your browser

• Login to the WHMCS admin area, navigate to Setup > General Settings > Other tab
• Enable the Display Errors option
• Visit the cron.php file in your browser, eg: http://www.yourdomain.com/whmcs/crons/cron.php

Run the cron job from the server command line

• Access your server command line
• Copy the cron job command for the cron.php file from your server's cron tab

  crontab -u userName -l)

• Execute the command you copied:

  php -q /path/to/whmcs/crons/cron.php

• Examine the output for any errors.

Run the cron job from the server command line with debug flag

• Access your server command line
• Copy the cron job command for the cron.php file from your server's cron tab

  crontab -u userName -l)

• Add the debug flag to the end of the cron command and execute it:

  php -q /path/to/whmcs/crons/cron.php debug

• Examine the output for any errors.
• The final line output should be "Completed (Time: x Memory: x.x)"

Common Errors

Site error: the file /path/to/crons/cron.php requires the ionCube PHP Loader ioncube_loader_lin_5.6.so to be installed by the website operator

Seeing this error output indicates that the PHP configuration for your WHMCS installation may be different than that used for the command line.

Please try running the following command at the server command line whilst logged in as the same user under which the cron job is running to see the version information for your PHP and ionCube configuration:

php -v

You should get an output along the lines of:

PHP 5.4.43 (cli) (built: Aug 2 2015 02:44:35)
Copyright (c) 1997-2014 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.4.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2014 Zend Technologies
with the ionCube PHP Loader v4.7.5, Copyright (c) 2002-2014, by ionCube Ltd.

If the "with the ionCube PHP Loader" line is absent, this indicates that the Ioncube loaders are not available for this user. Please work with your hosting provider or server administrator to ensure that the Ioncube loaders are available to the cron job user.

Unable to communicate with the WHMCS installation

This error occurs when the cron.php file is unable to communicate with the WHMCS installation, its typically occurs when the location of the /crons directory has been customised. The cron.php file will look for the WHMCS directory in the location specified in the /crons/config.php file. So to To resolve this error:

• Open the /crons/config.php file
• Ensure the $whmcspath line is uncommented by removing the preceding // characters.
• Ensure the path specified on the $whmcspath is the full system path to your WHMCS directory. This is the directory which contains the init.php and clientarea.php files.
• Once completed, the entire file will look like this:

<?php
/**
 * Custom Crons Directory Configuration
 *
 * This crons folder may be moved to any place above or below the docroot.
 *
 * We recommend locating it outside the docroot to prevent browser based access.
 *
 * Upon moving it, you must provide the path to your WHMCS installation to
 * allow the cron task files to communicate with the parent WHMCS installation.
 *
 * To do this, rename this file config.php, then uncomment and enter the full
 * path to the WHMCS root directory in the $whmcspath variable below.
 *
 * You must also provide the appropriate path to the crons folder in the
 * $crons_dir variable inside the WHMCS master configuration file.
 *
 * For more information please see http://docs.whmcs.com/Custom_Crons_Directory
 */

$whmcspath = '/home/username/public_html/whmcs/';