LFCS Operation of Running Systems Practice Question
An administrator needs to schedule a cron job that runs a script every day at 3:00 AM, but the system is in a different time zone (UTC) than the administrator's local time (EST). The administrator wants the job to run at 3:00 AM local time regardless of system time zone changes. What is the best approach?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse the TZ environment variable (which affects the job's runtime environment) with the CRON_TZ variable (which affects cron's scheduling logic), leading them to incorrectly select option C.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use the CRON_TZ variable in the crontab file to specify EST and schedule at 3:00 AM
The CRON_TZ variable, when set in a crontab file, allows you to specify a time zone for the cron daemon to interpret the schedule entries. This ensures the job runs at 3:00 AM EST regardless of the system's default time zone (UTC), and it persists even if the system time zone changes, as cron uses the variable for scheduling.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Change the system time zone to EST and set the cron job to run at 3:00 AM
Why it's wrong here
Changing the system time zone affects all applications and may not be desirable.
- ✓
Use the CRON_TZ variable in the crontab file to specify EST and schedule at 3:00 AM
Why this is correct
CRON_TZ sets the time zone for subsequent cron jobs in the file.
- ✗
Set the TZ environment variable in the crontab file before the job definition
Why it's wrong here
cron daemon does not evaluate TZ in the crontab file; it uses system time zone.
- ✗
Calculate the UTC equivalent (8:00 AM UTC) and schedule the job at that time
Why it's wrong here
If the system time zone changes, the job will run at the wrong local time.
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