AOE Scheduler: Invalid model / method definition

If you get an error message similar to:

Invalid model/method definition, expecting "model/class::method", got "" instead.

This is probably happening because you have AOE Scheduler installed. If all cronjobs are working fine, you can ignore this message. If you want to get rid of the message, simply remove AOE Scheduler and see if cronjobs work as expected. We are unsure whether this is a bug in AOE Scheduler or something happening outside of our modules.

As of 2017 it seems that there are third party modules that, when run in the same cron execution with our module, so at the same minute, and who call the Magento app clearCache() method, cause the issue. One extension which does this for example is the Ebizmarts Mailchimp extension, and they are trying to work on a fix: https://github.com/mailchimp/mc-magento/issues/501#issuecomment-335159272 - Check your code base for clearCache() and if you have modules doing this in a method used during cron execution, that probably causes it.

A possible solution can be to schedule our cronjobs to run at times when other cronjobs don't run. Let's say your cronjob always fails at 8:00am. Schedule it for 7:53am for example to make sure it doesn't run with other jobs, and it could work.

If that doesn't help, you can contact us and ask for the so called "manual cron method", where we will provide you with specific PHP files that must be placed in specific directories, and you can then set up cron jobs directly in the crontab that are only responsible of handling our import/export cronjobs, to avoid issues with the Magento cron scheduler/AOE Scheduler.

This error is nothing we can fix unfortunately. There are just workarounds. The best solution to fix this issue entirely is described below.

A working solution when using cache-resetting modules (such as Mailchimp) in Magento 1

If you need to use Mailchimp or other modules that reset the cache during runtime, the only solution is to install AOE Scheduler and move our cronjobs into a separate cron group: https://github.com/AOEpeople/Aoe_Scheduler/blob/master/doc/cron-groups.md

Steps:

• Install latest AOE Scheduler module version
• Install latest XTENTO order export/product export/tracking import/stock import/order import versions (only those versions come with the correct cron group)
• Remove the original Magento cronjob (cron.php/cron.sh) from the crontab on your server.
• Configure your crontab entry using --includeGroups and --excludeGroups. You will have 4 new entries in crontab for AOE Scheduler's scheduler_cron.sh then, looking something like this:

* * * * * /bin/bash /var/www/magento/current/htdocs/scheduler_cron.sh --mode always --includeGroups xtento
* * * * * /bin/bash /var/www/magento/current/htdocs/scheduler_cron.sh --mode always --excludeGroups xtento
* * * * * /bin/bash /var/www/magento/current/htdocs/scheduler_cron.sh --mode default --includeGroups xtento
* * * * * /bin/bash /var/www/magento/current/htdocs/scheduler_cron.sh --mode default --excludeGroups xtento
You can find examples at System > Scheduler > Instructions. Of course, you must adjust the path to the Magento root directory.

This will make sure our cronjobs are executed in a completely separate cron group.