2

I am transfering crontabs from an old server (centos 5.5) to a a new (centos 6.0) and there is a problem with (the most important) user apache. On the new server I am getting the following:

root@newserver $ crontab -u apache -e

Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info
You (apache) are not allowed to access to (crontab) because of pam configuration.

How can I overcome this?

clime
  • 427
  • 1
  • 7
  • 15
  • Does http://serverfault.com/questions/408331/users-cannot-use-crontab-after-password-security-upgrade help ? – user9517 Jan 09 '13 at 17:57
  • a bit, i guess the problem is there is no record for apache in /etc/shadow but i am not sure if adding it is correct. – clime Jan 09 '13 at 18:04
  • 1
    All /etc/passwd entries must have a corresponding /etc/shadow entry -- its not just nice its the law. – mdpc Jan 09 '13 at 18:09

1 Answers1

3

This is being caused because you have no entry for apache in your /etc/shadow file. It should contain a entry like this 

apache:!!:15168::::::

I just tested this on a C6.3 system and removing it gives exactly the same error you are seeing.

user9517
  • 115,471
  • 20
  • 215
  • 297