I'm looking for better solution to handling our cron tasks in a load balanced environment.

Currently have:

  • PHP application running on 3 CentOS servers behind a load balancer.
  • Tasks that need to be run periodically but only on a single machine at a time.
  • Good old cron set up to run those tasks on the first server.
  • Problems if the first server is out of play for whatever reason.

Looking for:

  • Something more robust and de-centralized.
  • Load balancing the tasks so multiple tasks would run only once but on random/different servers to spread the load.
  • Preventing not having the tasks run when the first server goes down.
  • Being able to manage tasks and see aggregate reports ideally using a web interface.
  • Notifications if anything goes wrong.

The solution doesn't need to be implemented in PHP but it would be nice as it would allow us to easily tweak it if needed.

I have found two projects that look promissing. GNUBatch and Job Scheduler. Will most likely further test both but I wonder if someone has better solution for the above.

Thanks.

php cron load-balancing
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