Automation for Magento 2 with KatanaPIM

Set up automated synchronization between KatanaPIM and Magento using cron jobs. This guide walks you through enabling automation, configuring schedules, and tuning performance.

Overview

KatanaPIM Connect automates catalog synchronization using two cron jobs:

Cron Job	Purpose	Default Schedule
Full Data Sync	Fetches all data from KatanaPIM API and detects changes	Every 8 hours
Incremental Sync	Syncs pending changes to Magento	Every 5 minutes

This two-phase approach separates data fetching from Magento processing. The Full Data Sync fetches and compares data, while the Incremental Sync handles the actual Magento catalog updates.

Prerequisites

Before enabling automation, ensure:

The module is enabled (Katana PIM → Configuration → General)
API credentials are configured and tested
Store language mapping is set up
Attribute mapping is complete (Katana PIM → Attributes)
Magento cron is running (bin/magento cron:run or system crontab)

Step 1: Enable Automation

Go to Stores → Configuration → Katana PIM → Automation
Set Enable Automation to Yes

This is the master switch. When disabled, all cron jobs skip execution. CLI commands still work regardless of this setting.

Step 2: Configure Auto-Create Settings

These settings control whether cron jobs can create new entities or only update existing ones.

Setting	Description	Recommendation
Auto create new products	Allow cron to create new Magento products from PIM	See below
Auto create new categories	Allow cron to create new Magento categories from PIM	See below

Conservative Approach (Recommended for Initial Setup)

Set both to No. New products and categories from PIM appear in the Katana PIM grids but are not created in Magento until you manually trigger the sync via mass actions or CLI. This gives you full control over what enters your catalog.

Hands-Off Approach

Set both to Yes for fully automated catalog management. Any new product or category added in KatanaPIM will automatically appear in Magento after the next sync cycle.

Tip: Start with the conservative approach. Once you've verified the sync works correctly and your attribute mappings are complete, switch to hands-off.

Step 3: Set Sync Schedules

Full Data Sync

Fetches all data from the KatanaPIM API (attributes, categories, products, assets) and stores it in local tables. Data is compared using a hash and marked as needs_update when changes are detected.

Available frequencies:

Schedule	Cron Expression	Best For
Every 4 hours	`16 /4 * *`	Catalogs that change frequently
Every 6 hours	`4 /6 * *`	Active catalogs with regular updates
Every 8 hours	`33 /8 * *`	Default — good balance for most stores
Daily	`0 4 * * *`	Stable catalogs with few daily changes
Weekly	`0 4 * * MON`	Catalogs updated in batches
Never	—	When only using manual/CLI sync

Incremental Sync

Fetches only changed data from the KatanaPIM API (since last sync) and processes all pending updates to Magento. This creates or updates Magento attributes, categories, products, and assets.

Schedule	Cron Expression	Best For
Every 5 minutes	`/5 * * *`	Default — near real-time updates
Every 15 minutes	`/15 * * *`	Moderate update frequency
Hourly	`0 * * * *`	Lower server load
Every 4 hours	`16 /4 * *`	Large catalogs with batch-style updates
Never	—	When only using manual/CLI sync

Recommended Combinations

Scenario	Full Sync	Incremental Sync
Small catalog (< 5,000 SKUs)	Every 8 hours	Every 5 minutes
Medium catalog (5,000-50,000 SKUs)	Daily	Every 15 minutes
Large catalog (50,000+ SKUs)	Daily or Weekly	Every 15-60 minutes
Infrequent PIM updates	Weekly	Every 4 hours

Step 4: Configure Processing Limits

Processing limits prevent cron jobs from consuming too many resources. These are configured under Stores → Configuration → Katana PIM → General → Limits → Cron Limits.

Setting	Default	Description
Max Products per Cron	100	Products processed per incremental cron run
Max Categories per Cron	100	Categories processed per incremental cron run
Max Attributes per Cron	100	Attributes processed per incremental cron run
Max Assets per Cron	100	Assets processed per incremental cron run

Set to 0 for unlimited processing (not recommended for cron).

How Limits Work

If 500 products have pending updates and the limit is 100:

Run 1: processes products 1-100
Run 2: processes products 101-200
Run 3: processes products 201-300
...and so on

With a 5-minute incremental schedule, all 500 products sync within approximately 25 minutes.

Tuning Tips

Increase limits if cron runs complete quickly and you want faster sync
Decrease limits if cron jobs overlap, cause timeouts, or impact frontend performance
Monitor var/log/katanapim-cron.log to see how long each run takes

Step 5: Configure Maintenance

Under the Maintenance section:

Setting	Default	Description
Sync Log Retention (days)	30	Automatically delete sync log entries older than this. Set to 0 to keep all logs.

The cleanup runs daily at 3:00 AM automatically.

Verify Automation is Working

Check Sync Log

Go to Katana PIM → Sync Log to see recent sync activity, including:

Sync type (Full/Incremental)
Items created, updated, deleted
Errors encountered
Execution time

Check Cron Log File

Review var/log/katanapim-cron.log for detailed timing and processing information.

Run Cron Manually

To test if cron is working:

bin/magento cron:run --group=katanapim

Combining Automation with Manual Sync

Automation and manual operations work side by side:

Method	When to Use
Cron (automated)	Day-to-day synchronization
Admin grid actions	Syncing specific products or categories on demand
CLI commands	Initial imports, large batch operations, troubleshooting

CLI commands ignore automation settings and always run regardless of the Enable Automation toggle.

Useful CLI Commands

# Full sync (fetch + process) — no entity limits
bin/magento katana:import:full

# Incremental sync — respects configured limits
bin/magento katana:import:incremental

# Full sync for specific entities only
bin/magento katana:import:full --products
bin/magento katana:import:full --categories --attributes

# Fetch from API without syncing to Magento (troubleshooting)
bin/magento katana:import:full --only-api

# Sync local data to Magento without fetching from API
bin/magento katana:import:incremental --skip-api

Troubleshooting

Cron Jobs Not Running

Verify Magento cron is active: bin/magento cron:run --group=katanapim
Check the cron schedule table (see query above)
Ensure Enable Automation is set to Yes
Ensure the module is Enabled in General configuration

Sync Seems Slow

Check processing limits — increase if runs complete quickly
Check var/log/katanapim-cron.log for timing breakdown
Consider adjusting batch sizes under General → Limits
For large initial imports, use CLI instead of cron

Products Not Appearing in Magento

Verify Auto create new products is set to Yes
Check the product in Katana PIM → Products grid for errors or skip flags
Ensure attribute mapping is complete
Run a full sync to detect all changes: bin/magento katana:import:full

Cron Jobs Overlapping

Decrease processing limits (Max per Cron settings)
Increase the incremental sync interval
Check server resources (CPU, memory)

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