[Bug 1836475] Re: [SRU] update-notifier-common weekly cron job runs at the same time for all computers across the globe

[Haw Loeung]

On Mon, Jun 14, 2021 at 04:16:28PM -0000, Robie Basak wrote:
> > I'm keen to try and avoid handling any more complex (arbitrary)
> customisations
>
> I agree! I think I prefer adding a random sleep for the SRU for this
> reason, even if the appropriate fix for the development release that
> landed in Groovy was to switch to a systemd timer. However a long random
> sleep in cron.weekly will hold up other cron.weekly jobs, so given that
> /usr/lib/ubuntu-release-upgrader/release-upgrade-motd already gates with
> a timestamp, perhaps backgrounding a shorter random delay would be
> preferable if that would be acceptable to Canonical IS?
>

We could try with a shorter random delay and see if it helps spread
the load.

The 'update-notifier-common' cron.weekly job is usually last so
wouldn't really hold up that many other cron.weekly jobs. If a shoter
random delay/sleep doesn't help, we could consider renaming it to
something like 'zzupdate-notifier-common' and increasing the delay
then.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1836475

Title:
  [SRU] update-notifier-common weekly cron job runs at the same time for
  all computers across the globe

Status in update-notifier package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in update-notifier source package in Focal:
  Triaged
Status in update-notifier source package in Groovy:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  [Impact]

  * The fix spreads access to changelogs.ubuntu.com over a full week (it was decided this was preferable to the 24h originally requested)
  * This results in reduced load on Canonical's infrastructure, of benefit to all users

  [Test Case]

  On Focal desktop and server installations:

  * sudo add-apt-repository ppa:waveform/update-notifier
  * sudo apt update
  * sudo apt install update-notifier-common
  * Ensure that /etc/cron.daily/update-notifier-common and /etc/cron.weekly/update-notifier-common have been removed
  * Ensure systemctl status update-notifier-motd.timer shows a valid timer
  * Ensure systemctl status update-notifier-download.timer shows a valid timer

  [Regression Potential]

  Low; the patch is already in active use in Groovy.

  [Original Description]

  Hi,

  /etc/cron.weekly/update-notifier-common is run at the same time on all
  machines across the globe. It's putting unnecessary stress on
  Canonical's infrastructure (changelogs.ubuntu.com, specifically).
  Could we please have this job spread out over 24h ?

  And could we please SRU this change ?

  Thanks

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