# Schedule Playbook with crontab **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [July 12, 2017, 4:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/schedule-playbook-with-crontab/24968 "2017-07-12T16:03:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Phil\_F](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/45deac/32.png) [@Phil\_F](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Phil_F)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 4:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/schedule-playbook-with-crontab/24968/1 "2017-07-12T16:03:51Z")
Hi, I am attempting to schedule a playbook to run every night to backup Cisco network device configs using crontab. The playbook is a simple ios\_command task executing show run on the Cisco Devices. The playbook works fine when I run it manually and I have got to the point where crontab is runs the playbook. However when crontab runs the playbook the playbook is failing and the only output I can see is this:(from ansible.log) 2017-07-12 17:52:01,981 p=6113 u=root | ERROR! Extraneous options or arguments 2017-07-12 17:54:02,232 p=6122 u=root | ERROR! Extraneous options or arguments 2017-07-12 17:56:01,525 p=6131 u=root | ERROR! Extraneous options or arguments As you can see this is every 2 minutes and for testing purposes crontab is running the playbook every 2 minutes. crontab: \*/2 \* \* \* \* /usr/bin/ansible /home/ansibleuser/ansible/playbooks/ansible-playbook device\_bak\_2.yml playbook which runs perfectly manually: ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 4:08pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/schedule-playbook-with-crontab/24968/2 "2017-07-12T16:08:10Z")
bin/ansible is for Adhoc tasks, you want bin/ansible-playbook is for executing playbooks this makes no sense: /usr/bin/ansible /home/ansibleuser/ansible/playbooks/ansible-playbook device\_bak\_2.yml I think you want: /usr/bin/ansible-playbook /home/ansibleuser/ansible/playbooks/device\_bak\_2.yml ---
**Author:** ![mail.philfriend](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@mail.philfriend](https://forum.ansible.com/u/mail.philfriend)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 5:44pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/schedule-playbook-with-crontab/24968/3 "2017-07-12T17:44:06Z")
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**Author:** ![mail.philfriend](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@mail.philfriend](https://forum.ansible.com/u/mail.philfriend)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/schedule-playbook-with-crontab/24968/4 "2017-07-12T17:45:46Z")
Thank you so much Brian, it works perfectly. ---
**Author:** ![Day\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@Day\_Man](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Day_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2017, 4:11pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/schedule-playbook-with-crontab/24968/5 "2017-09-24T16:11:09Z")
I am newbie at this, i know how to setup ansible playbooks and run them but i dont know how to schedule a task like backing up cisco configs like you are trying to do here. I dont know Crontab, how do i set it up and also does it use scripts as well? Please provide details. thank you! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 1:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/schedule-playbook-with-crontab/24968/6 "2017-09-25T13:31:09Z")
ansible-playbook is a 'unix command line utility' you can schedule it in cron as you would do any other, just pass it the options it needs: 0 4 \* \* \* /usr/bin/ansible-playbook /path/to/mybackupplay.yml .... Also, you can make your play an 'executable script' by setting the x permission bits on the playbook file and having ansible-playbook in the shebang: #!/usr/bin/ansible-playbook - hosts: localhost   .... ---
**Author:** ![Day\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@Day\_Man](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Day_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 1:40pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/schedule-playbook-with-crontab/24968/7 "2017-09-25T13:40:32Z")
Brian, Please pardon my question it may sound stupid but i really want to learn this but dont have a grasp of this yet as i am very new to linux, where do i place this command " 0 4 \* \* \* /usr/bin/ansible-playbook /path/to/mybackupplay.yml … " is it going to be a file or i run it on the command line in ubuntu. maybe an example would make this a little more clear to me. maybe a simple yaml script and a cron job to run the yaml script on a schedule. if this is not too much to ask i will appreciate it a lot. thanks ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 1:42pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/schedule-playbook-with-crontab/24968/8 "2017-09-25T13:42:44Z")
That was a 'cron tab entry' .. not really an ansible thing, but a cron one. Before attempting such a task, you should get familiar with cron. ---
**Author:** ![Day\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@Day\_Man](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Day_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 1:47pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/schedule-playbook-with-crontab/24968/9 "2017-09-25T13:47:04Z")
you are right, Thanks ---
**Author:** ![andres\_pinina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@andres\_pinina](https://forum.ansible.com/u/andres_pinina)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2018, 12:21pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/schedule-playbook-with-crontab/24968/10 "2018-06-24T12:21:05Z")
crontab -e