Windows 10: Running scheduled jobs e.g hourly on Linux VM / WSL / Host Linux

Hi folks

for those who have NAS (Linux) type servers / Linux VM's or Host Linux systems it's dead easy to set up jobs that run say every hour or whatever - use for this would be scheduled backups etc etc.

I've got a simple 1 line example here of running an email to myself every hour --simply sends my external IP address -- so I can logon remotely to server even if ISP changes the IP address (which they often do --rare to be given ISP static internet addresses). That way I don't need dyndns, teamviewer or other things like that but there's all sorts of commands you can schedule to run --backups would be one that immediately seems obvious to me - but always best to start simple !!!

Create your executable bash / script file say in home directory and then link it to /usr/local/bin (via the ln command)
and now create an entry in crontab (you can be a normal user - doesn't need admin or root privileges to edit your own crontab)

first the actual email command (but can be any script / job you like) (for dig command install packages dnsutils and netcat)
note BASH expects the #!/bin/bash in the ist line even though # is a comment line

#!/bin/bash
# Send email from bash
# hrafn simple script to send simple email with your IP address (external)
server="<email server>"
port="<port>" ===< assume 25 -- this is for standard not auth not tls etc
from="<your email address>"
to="<email of receiver>"
# get your public IP address
myip="$(dig +short myip.opendns.com @ReSolver1.opendns.com)"
# create message
function mail_input {
echo "ehlo $(hostname -f)"
echo "MAIL FROM: <$from>"
echo "RCPT TO: <$to>"
echo "DATA"
echo "From: <$from>"
echo "To: <$to>"
echo "Subject: Internet Addressl"
echo " "
echo "Your public internet address is "
echo $myip
echo " "
echo "finished"
echo "."
echo "quit"
}

mail_input | netcat $server $port || err_exit

save as a .sh type of file and make executable and ln to /usr/local/bin

Don't forget the echo "." line --not a typo this indicates to the mail server that it's end of input data stream.

now the crontab table 1 line is all that's needed --google for crontab entries -- this is the simplest -run this job every hour on the hour 7 days a week. You can make much more specific - by time, by day by date etc etc.

0 * * * * /usr/local/bin/automail

SEEEMPLES !!"!!

works in WSL as well

If you need more complex email authorisations, attachments and password authentication etc it's easy to do -- beyond the scope of this post which was simply to show how easy it is to schedule any jobs you might want on NAS type server or if using the WSL on Windows.

Update : Here's the mail that arrived in Outlook inbox at 14.00 (scheduled via the crontab) - approx 20 mins after I made this post.





Happy new year and "Cronning"

Cheers
jimbo

:)

 

Windows HOST, attach Linux external USB to Linux VM


Hi there

I usually run a LINUX HOST for testing Windows VM's - but I need to test some new releases of various Linux distros so I've created some VM's --easy enough and running them on a Windows Host.

However I can't attach a USB drive with a Linux file system (XFS) to the VM as the Windows HOST rejects the HDD wanting me to format it !!. There's 2.7 TB of media files on it - I want to test running media server in a VM.

Anybody know how to bypass the Windows nag prompt about the HDD and be able to attach it direct to the VM.

(The other way round is no problem -- never a problem loading NTFS HDD's on to Linux machines -- however the NTFS file system is SLOW compared with XFS -- on USB3 device on Native windows transfer rate of 1 TB of files from fast NTFS HDD to NTFS USB3 device is max 82 Mib/s - average for whole transfer. On same machine with Native Linux and XFS to XFS (using same HDD's and USB 3 port avg speed is 350 mib/s !! -- HUGE difference !!!).

Note I have to have a Windows Host for this --I know I could run Linux VM's from a Linux Host but in this case I do have to use a Windows Host as that will be the destination system at the end of testing.

BTW I'm running VMWARE workstation 12.1 on W10 Pro Host.

Cheers
jimbo

 

Windows HOST, attach Linux external USB to Linux VM

Not a direct solution but wouldn't it work if drive was formatted as exFAT instead which can be read or written on Linux (may need to add support).

Perhaps putting a small fat 32 partition on drive so you can get drive mounted in vm, and then use tools in vm to read xfs partitions might work?

 

Windows Subsystem Linux

Hello,

We would like to know more about the issue you're experiencing with using
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• Are you developing a program, an app, or a software for Linux?
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For now, we suggest reviewing these support articles to find out if there's an issue with the installation of
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