Evolution of Magento 2.4.6 cron jobs upgrade: Changes from Previous Versions

Introduction

The Magento 2.4.6 cron jobs upgrade plays a crucial role in improving performance and stability across Magento installations. Magento’s cron job system is the backbone of automated tasks, driving everything from indexing to email delivery in your eCommerce store. With each release, the cron system in Magento is refined to enhance scalability and compatibility.

In Magento 2.4.6 cron, significant updates were introduced, including PHP 8.2 compatibility, performance fixes, improved search indexing, and enhancements for Multi-Source Inventory. In this second installment of our Magento 2.4.6 Cron blog series, we explore how cron has evolved from previous versions, focusing on changelog highlights, backward-incompatible changes, and a detailed comparison with Magento 2.4.5.

Changelog Highlights for Cron in Magento 2.4.6

Magento 2.4.6, released in March 2023, introduced improvements across the cron system in Magento, impacting Magento cron jobs, indexing performance, and PHP compatibility. Below are the key highlights:

1. PHP 8.2 Compatibility

The Magento 2.4.6 cron jobs upgrade officially supports PHP 8.2 compatibility, requiring updates to cron-related code. Deprecated PHP functions like create_function() and each() used in older Magento cron jobs are no longer supported, pushing developers to refactor custom scripts.

2. Performance Optimizations

Multiple performance-related patches were added for Magento 2.4.6 cron tasks:

• ACSD-53347 → Fixes price indexer degradation for large catalogs.
• ACSD-52613 → Resolves cache flush issues in cron-driven tasks.
• ACSD-47955 → Improves out-of-stock visibility in search indexing.

These patches enhance the indexing and stability of Magento cron jobs.

3. Elasticsearch & OpenSearch Enhancements

Magento 2.4.6 supports Elasticsearch 8.x and OpenSearch 2.x. This affects:

• catalogsearch_fulltext cron
• Diacritic-insensitive search
• Indexing performance

This improvement is particularly beneficial for stores using Multi-Source Inventory, which relies heavily on indexing.

4. Removal of Deprecated Scripts

The old script:

update/cron.php

was removed in the Magento 2.4.6 cron jobs upgrade, making:

bin/magento cron:run the only valid cron entry point. This simplifies the cron system in Magento.

5. Multi-Source Inventory (MSI) Improvements

MSI cron jobs such as:

inventory.source.items.cleanup

has been optimized to enhance performance and reliability.
Large catalogs and multi-warehouse systems benefit from the improved Multi-Source Inventory indexing.

Backward-Incompatible Changes Impacting Cron

The Magento 2.4.6 cron jobs upgrade introduces several backward-incompatible changes that may impact custom cron tasks.

1. Removal of update/cron.php

Older versions allowed:

php update/cron.php

But Magento 2.4.6 only allows:

php bin/magento cron:run

Failing to update server crontab entries can break Magento cron jobs, causing missed emails, stalled indexing, and cache issues.

2. PHP 8.2 Deprecations

Deprecated PHP functions used within Magento 2.4.6 cron code must be updated for PHP 8.2 compatibility.

3. Elasticsearch/OpenSearch Schema Updates

Cron jobs interacting with search engines must align with ES 8.x / OpenSearch 2.x schema changes, especially for large stores using Multi-Source Inventory.

4. Message Queue Enhancements

Magento 2.4.6 includes improvements for RabbitMQ 4.x, affecting queue-driven Magento cron jobs such as:
queue:consumers:start

Comparison with Magento 2.4.5 Cron System

Magento 2.4.6 clearly improves the performance of Magento cron jobs and overall automation workflows.

Code Example: Updating Cron Job for PHP 8.2

To illustrate the impact of PHP 8.2, consider a custom cron job from Magento 2.4.5 that needs refactoring. Below is an example of a legacy cron job and its updated version for 2.4.6.

Legacy Cron Job (Magento 2.4.5, PHP 8.1)

< ?php
namespace Vendor\Module\Cron;

class LegacyJob
{
    public function execute()
    {
        // Deprecated each() function
        $data = ['a' => 1, 'b' => 2];

        while (list($key, $value) = each($data)) {
            // Process data
            echo "Key: $key, Value: $value\n";
        }
    }
}

Refactored Cron Job (Magento 2.4.6, PHP 8.2)

< ?php
namespace Vendor\Module\Cron;

use Psr\Log\LoggerInterface;

class UpdatedJob
{
    protected $logger;

    public function __construct(LoggerInterface $logger)
    {
        $this->logger = $logger;
    }

    public function execute()
    {
        // Use foreach instead of each() for PHP 8.2 compatibility
        $data = ['a' => 1, 'b' => 2];

        foreach ($data as $key => $value) {
            $this->logger->info("Key: $key, Value: $value");
        }

        return $this;
    }
}

This refactored job replaces the deprecated each() function with foreach and uses dependency injection for logging, aligning with Magento 2.4.6 best practices. The crontab.xml configuration remains the same:

< ?xml version="1.0" ? >
< config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:module:Magento_Cron:etc/crontab.xsd" >
    < group id="default" >
          
            name="vendor_module_updated_job" 
            instance="Vendor\Module\Cron\UpdatedJob" 
            method="execute" >
            < schedule >0 */5 * * *
        < /job >
    < /group >
< /config >

We’ll dive deeper into custom cron job creation in Part 32.

This update ensures your custom cron jobs remain compatible with the Magento 2.4.6 cron jobs upgrade.

Database Insights: Tracking Cron Changes

The cron_schedule table continues to track all Magento 2.4.6 cron activity.
Example query to identify failed jobs:

SELECT job_code, status, COUNT(*) AS execution_count
FROM cron_schedule
WHERE created_at >= '2023-03-01 00:00:00'
GROUP BY job_code, status
HAVING status IN ('error', 'missed');

This helps find issues after the Magento 2.4.6 cron jobs upgrade.

Sample Data

This query helps identify jobs impacted by deprecated scripts or misconfigurations post-upgrade. We’ll explore the cron_schedule table in detail in Part 15.

Flowchart: Cron Upgrade Impact

Best Practices for Upgrading Cron Jobs

• Update crontab to use bin/magento cron:run
• Refactor legacy scripts for PHP 8.2 compatibility
• Apply performance patches (indexers, cache, MSI)
• Test cron execution in staging
• Monitor cron_schedule and logs

These steps ensure the cron system in Magento performs optimally after the Magento 2.4.6 cron jobs upgrade.

What’s Next?

This post explored how Magento 2.4.6’s cron system has evolved, setting the stage for deeper dives into configurations and implementations.

In Part 3: Why Cron Jobs Are Critical for Magento 2.4.6 Store Performance Guide ↗, we’ll explore:

• indexing
• caching
• customer experience, with real-world examples

Stay tuned!