README.Cron

For Linux/Unix platforms only:

WARNING: FusionInventory Agent would better be installed as systemd service and
this is the recommanded way of doing.

FusionInventory agent is expected to run its tasks on a regular basis and is better
installed as service. Its memory and load footprints are low enough for modern desktop computers.

To know better about the FusionInventory agent execution modes, you should read
the online Agent usage page:
http://fusioninventory.org/documentation/agent/usage.html

You should use cron if you don't want a fusioninventory-agent process to be running
all the time and if you don't need to trigger it remotely (from the server
or manually, locally contacting the `http://localhost:62354/` page).

So if you prefer to run FusionInventory Agent as scheduled cron job, you may need
to do the following as root:
1. stop and disable the fusioninventory-agent service (if start/enabled):
   systemctl stop fusioninventory-agent
   systemctl disable fusioninventory-agent

2. create a /etc/fusioninventory/conf.d/better-for-cron.cfg file with the following
   lines:
   # Don't force agent to run inventory at each run, but only
   # after server defined timeout has been reached
   lazy = 1

3. as example, add a root cron job like this:
   # Don't remove --wait option (delay in seconds) so the agent wait a random
   # time before really run its work
   00 */4 * * * /usr/bin/fusioninventory-agent --wait=1800 >/var/lib/fusioninventory-agent/cron.log 2>&1

For large companies, be aware you can lead to concurrent execution issues
if you don't enable agent `lazy` option with cron scheduling and even more if you forget to
use `--wait` option. To avoid such missconfiguration, you would prefer leave the agent
started as systemd service and define a peaceful delay on server. You may adjust scheduled
time and wait command line only option to your needs.

As a reminder, when launched without the daemonize configuration directive
as usually done from cron, the agent is a short-lived process, without
the ability to listen on the network for out-of-schedule activation requests
from the server.
===

Review our mandatory 'schedule agent with cron' page:
http://fusioninventory.org/documentation/agent/cron.html