Setting Up the Shopware 6 Background Queue Worker (Unmanaged Server)

Shopware 6 uses so-called Message Queue Workers to process background tasks and recurring tasks. In the default configuration of Shopware 6, these are executed by the logged-in administrator in the browser. As soon as more than one administrator is logged in, these Message Queue Workers are executed multiple times, which can lead to a very high CPU load and problems with PHP execution.

To permanently resolve this issue, Shopware 6 offers the option to move the execution of these Message Queue Workers to the background—more specifically, as a CLI command.

Disabling Frontend Message Queue Workers

To disable the Shopware 6 Message Queue Workers for logged-in administrators, you must create a zz-creoline.yaml configuration file as the system user in the Shopware directory /config/packages.

To do this, first log in as the system user:

su -l <SYSTEM USER>

Now create the configuration file:

nano config/packages/zz-creoline.yaml

# /var/www/vhosts/my-shop-domain.de/httpdocs/config/packages/zz-creoline.yaml

shopware:
    admin_worker:
 enable_admin_worker: false

After the config file has been created, the Shopware cache must be cleared so that the new configuration file takes effect:

bin/console cache:clear

On our Managed Shopware servers, various PHP binaries are available for running the CLI console. To clear the cache using the PHP 8.2 CLI, run the following command:

/opt/plesk/php/8.4/bin/php /var/www/vhosts/my-shop-domain.de/httpdocs/bin/console cache:clear

Setting Up the Message Queue Worker as a Supervisor Service (Recommended)

Solution 1

To ensure the Message Queue Worker runs continuously, we recommend setting it up as a Supervisor service. To do this, the following files must be created:

touch /etc/supervisor/conf.d/shopware-tasks.conf

# /etc/supervisor/conf.d/shopware-tasks.conf

# Copyright (C) 2025 creoline GmbH
# Supervisor Service - Shopware 6
# Version: 1.0.4

# Shopware Consumer
[program:shopware-consumer]
process_name=%(program_name)s_%(process_num)02d
numprocs=1
command=/opt/plesk/php/8.3/bin/php /var/www/vhosts/__DOMAIN__/httpdocs/bin/console messenger:consume async failed low_priority --time-limit=120 --memory-limit=512M
environment=MESSENGER_CONSUMER_NAME="shopware_consumer_%(process_num)02d"
user=__SSH_USERNAME__
autostart=true
autorestart=true
startsecs=5
startretries=10
stopwaitsecs=3600
redirect_stderr=true
stdout_logfile=/var/log/supervisor/%(program_name)s.log

# Shopware Scheduled Tasks
[program:shopware-scheduled-tasks]
process_name=%(program_name)s_%(process_num)02d
numprocs=1
command=/opt/plesk/php/8.3/bin/php /var/www/vhosts/__DOMAIN__/httpdocs/bin/console scheduled-task:run --time-limit=120 --memory-limit=512M
user=__SSH_USERNAME__
autostart=true
autorestart=true
startsecs=5
startretries=10
stopwaitsecs=3600

redirect_stderr=true
stdout_logfile=/var/log/supervisor/%(program_name)s.log

Next, replace the variables __SSH_USERNAME__ and __DOMAIN__ with the SSH system user of your Shopware instance and the domain of your instance.

sed -i 's/__SSH_USERNAME__/creoline-demo-user/g' /etc/supervisor/conf.d/shopware-tasks.conf

sed -i 's/__DOMAIN__/creoline-demo.com/g' /etc/supervisor/conf.d/shopware-tasks.conf

Then restart Supervisor:

systemctl restart supervisor.service

Setting Up the Message Queue Worker as a systemd Service

Solution 2

To ensure that the Message Queue Worker runs continuously, you can also set it up as a systemd service. To do this, you must create two systemd service files:

touch /etc/systemd/system/shopware_consumer.service

touch /etc/systemd/system/shopware_scheduled_tasks.service

Next, define the Shopware Message Queue Consumer as follows:

# /etc/systemd/system/shopware_consumer.service

[Unit]
Description=Shopware Message Queue Consumer
After=mysql.service
StartLimitIntervalSec=0

[Service]
Type=simple
User=ssh_example_user
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
ExecStart=/opt/plesk/php/8.4/bin/php /var/www/vhosts/my-shop-domain.de/httpdocs/bin/console messenger:consume async failed --time-limit=120 --memory-limit=512M

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

ExecStart=/opt/plesk/php/8.3/bin/php /var/www/vhosts/my-shop-domain.de/httpdocs/bin/console messenger:consume failed default --time-limit=120 --memory-limit=512M

messenger:consume default receiver2 fasttrack

To edit the file, you can use the preinstalled text editor nano or vi. Example for opening and editing the file:

nano /etc/systemd/system/shopware_consumer.service

Then paste the content shown above from the clipboard and save the changes using the keyboard shortcut CTRL + X. Finally, confirm the file changes by pressing Y and Enter.

In addition to the Consumer Service, the service for recurring tasks is also required:

# /etc/systemd/system/shopware_scheduled_tasks.service

[Unit]
Description=Shopware Scheduled Tasks Runner
After=mysql.service
StartLimitIntervalSec=0

[Service]
Type=simple
User=ssh_example_user
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
ExecStart=/opt/plesk/php/8.3/bin/php /var/www/vhosts/my-shop-domain.de/httpdocs/bin/console scheduled-task:run --time-limit=120 --memory-limit=512M

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Once both services have been set up, all that’s left is to start them:

systemctl start shopware_consumer
systemctl start shopware_scheduled_tasks

systemctl enable shopware_consumer
systemctl enable shopware_scheduled_tasks