Scheduled tasks do not start automatically on Plesk for Linux server

Symptoms

• On a Plesk for Linux server, scheduled tasks do not start automatically, including scheduled backup, statistics tasks or SSL certificate renewal.

• If a scheduled task is started manually from Plesk, it works correctly.

Cause

cron service is stopped on the server:

# systemctl status cron.service | grep "Active:"
Active: inactive (dead) since Thu 2019-10-17 13:17:27 +07; 1s ago

Resolution

1. Connect to the server using SSH.

2. Enable and start cron:

   • On CentOS/RHEL/CloudLinux:

     # systemctl enable crond
     # systemctl start crond

   • On Debian and Ubuntu:

     # systemctl enable cron
     # systemctl start cron