FAQs - Job Scheduling Management in Solution Manager

Which SAP roles and customizing activities (transaction SPRO) are required in order to get started with the Job Management functionality in SAP Solution Manager?

A: SAP note 1054005 - "FAQ: Job Scheduling Management with SAP Solution Manager" describes roles and SPRO activities that are required in order to get started with Job Management in SAP Solution Manager.

Do I need to perform additional activities in order to use the Job Management Work Center in SAP Solution Manager?

A: Your user needs at least the two roles SAP_SMWORK_BASIC and SAP_SMWORK_JOB_MAN assigned. SAP note 1117355 - "Job Scheduling Management: Work Center" describes which steps are required in order to activate and use the Job Management Work Center.

If I want to use the integration between the Job Request and the Job Document in SAP Solution Manager, do I need some specific CRM configuration?

A: SAP notes 1111310 - "Job Scheduling Management: Extended Configuration" and 1225906 - "Customizing of the Job Request for Job Management" describe configuration steps for CRM so that Job Request and Job Documentation can be linked.

If I want to use the integration between SAP Solution Manager and SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood, do I need to perform additional configuration steps?

A: SAP note 1122497 - "Process scheduling for SAP Solution Manager" gives a general overview on what needs to be configured in order to establish the integration between SAP Solution Manager and SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood. An integral part of this integration is an interface called Business Application Enabler (BAE). You can learn more about the setup of this interface in SAP note 1265635 - "How to setup BAE (Business Automation Enabler)".

What kind of document is a Job Request?

A: The Job Request is a CRM document usually of transaction type SLFJ. In older releases transaction type SLFN was used, i.e. the normal Service Desk document.

Which systems are shown in the value help of the Job Request form?

A: When you access a Job Request form it is automatically assigned to your CRM Business Partner. Now when opening the value help for System/Client you only get to see those systems where your Business Partner is assigned to, i.e. those system/client combinations that you see in transaction BP under general information in tab strip "Identification" for each entry IDType "CRM001".

What do I need to fill-out in order to send a Job Request?

A: Generally speaking you need to fill out the basice information required for a CRM document, i.e. the System/Client information which results in an IBase, the Short and Long Text (could be pre-filled when influencing the layout of the request form - see some question below) and the Business Partner for a reporter (automatically derived from the usere that calls the application) and sold-to-party (normally automatically derived in the background.

Is the Job Request a necessary prerequisite for creating a Job Document?

A: No, the Job Documentation application can also be used stand-alone. You can directly create/change/delete a Job Document. But in order to streamline and standardize the process of how job requirements from the business department or project team can be brought into the backend system, it is recommended to use the Job Request and Job Documentation application in an integrated manner.

Can I influence the layout of the Job Request form?

A: Yes, on the one hand you can configure static F4 value helps for selected fields. This can be defined in transaction SPRO under SAP Solution Manager > Scenario-Specific Settings > Job Scheduling Management > Extended Configuration > Adapt Organization Data.
On the other hand you can hide or pre-fill selected fields or declare selected fields as mandatory. This can be defined in transaction SPRO under SAP Solution Manager > Scenario-Specific Settings > Job Scheduling Management > Integration with Service Desk > Adapt Job Request Form > Create WebDynpro Component Configuration.

Can I create a Job Request from the "outside"?

A: Yes, function module AGS_EJR_CREATE_JOB_REQ can be used to create Job Requests from remote systems. You can also refer SAP note 1327024 - "Integration into and Migration to Job Documentation"

What kind of document is a Job Document - is it a CRM document like the Job Request?

A: No, the Job Document is no CRM document. The Job Document is a "normal" document stored in a flat table. By the way it is also no document in the Knowledge Warehouse of SAP Solution Manager.

Can I influence the layout of the Job Document?

A: Yes, you can decide whether the respective tab strip of the Job Document shall be visible or not. This can be defined in transaction SPRO under SAP Solution Manager > Scenario-Specific Settings > Job Scheduling Management > Extended Configuration > Adapt Job documentation > Adjust Job Documentation Tab Visibility.

Can I change the building blocks that are proposed as naming convention for the background job?

A: Yes, the proposed naming convention can be adjusted to your company's needs. For this purpose you need to implement a corresponding BAdI. This can be defined in transaction SPRO under SAP Solution Manager > Scenario-Specific Settings > Job Scheduling Management > Extended Configuration > Adapt Job documentation > Set Up Own Naming Convention for Job Documentation.

Are there also Job Templates available?

A: Yes, SAP also provides Job Templates in order to ease the documentation of background if the same documentation can be applied to several systems, processes, or even customers.

In case I have to create many Job Documents. Is there some automatic help to fill-out some reoccurring information?

A: Yes, you can use macros in order to assign Contact Persons, Organizations, Logical Components (i.e. Systems) automatically.

Can I see, within the respective backend system, whether a Job Document exists for the respective job or not?

A: Yes, if your backend system runs on a recenter SAP NetWeaver support package then transaction SM37 provides an additional column that indicates if a corresponding Job Document exists. By clicking on this new icon you can directly access the Job Document.

Can I delete a Job Document?

A: Yes and no. You can use the activity "Delete Job Documentation" from within the "Job Management" Work Center or you can directly set the Document Status "Deleted" within the Job Document itself. Then a corresponding deletion indicator is set in some database table and hence the Job Document disappears from all document lists, i.e. it is no loger displayed in those lists. But the document is actually not deleted from the database as there may be references to other (still) existing documents like Job Requests, Issues, Service Desk or Change Request messages.

Can I export a Job Document?

A: Yes, you can export a Job Documentation as an XML file. Please refer SAP note 1327024 - "Integration into and Migration to Job Documentation"

If I schedule a job via a Job Document (type BC-XBP) which interface is used and is SAP Solution Manager then controlling this job?

A: As the name implies the SAP Solution Manager uses the BC-XBP interface, just like any other external scheduling tool, in order to schedule the job. But unlike other scheduling tools the SAP Solution Manager "fires and forgets", i.e. the SAP Solution Manager is only creating the job in the respective backend system but does not control it. The full control is taken over by the CCMS infrastructure of the respective backend system. Hence the SAP Solution Manager cannot be considered a real scheduling tool.
The preferred SAP scheduling tool is SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood as this tool also provides many additional features that transaction SM36 does not provide, e.g.

                               Handling job interceptions

                               Providing logical queues and priorities from 1-100

                               Enhanced workload balancing based on CPU and memory consumption

                               Providing job chain functionality allowing complex job dependencies and event-based scheduling

I am using an external job scheduling tool. Can I somehow identify whether end users are bypassing my central scheduling?

A: Yes, actually there is a rather easy way to identify end user scheduled jobs that are bypassing your central scheduling efforts. The key to the solution is the job status "Released".

Can I somehow control jobs that are (de-centrally) scheduled by end users without taking scheduling authorization away?

A: Yes, that is possible. Actually SAP provides two complementary solutions for this problem. On the one hand you can intercept jobs that are scheduled by certain users . On the other hand you can re-direct end users into a Job Request form once they want to schedule a job via transaction SM36, SM37 or SA38

Which external scheduling tools can be integrated with SAP Solution Manager?

A: The SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood is the only external scheduling tool that is tightly integrated with SAP Solution Manager. Nevertheless you can of course also use Job Request, Job Documentation and Business Process Monitoring functionality in combination with every other external scheduling tool. But then you have to transfer scheduling information manually from the Job Document to your respective scheduling tool (like you probably trasnfer data nowadays from MS Excel to your scheduler). And other external scheduling tools do not provide any feedback loop to SAP Solution Manager like SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood does.

Where can I find answers to FAQs around the job scheduling itself in the SAP system?

A: SAP note 31503 "FAQ: Background jobs" answers frequently asked questions around background jobs in general in the SAP system, e.g. "Can I reserve background work processes for individual applications or users?" or "Can job definitions be transported into other clients or systems?"

Where can I find some help for troubleshooting if I encounter problems with SM36/SM37 scheduling?

A: SAP note 37104 "Error analysis: Background processing system" helps with analyzing the most typical error situations when it comes to problems with SM36/SM37 scheduling.

Can I also monitor non-SAP jobs with Business Process Monitoring?

A: Only if you use the integration between SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood (SAP CPS) and SAP Solution Manager and only if you bought licenses that allow to schedule also non-SAP jobs with SAP CPS, then you can extend the Business Process Monitoring also to non-SAP jobs.

If I use Business Process Monitoring in order to monitor job runtimes, is it then also possible to report on the trend how the runtime evolved over the last couple weeks or months?

A: Yes, this kind of trend reporting is possible. You can transfer the monitoring results to SAP BW and evaluate trend lines via pre-defined web templates. The setup is described in transaction SPRO under SAP Solution Manager > Scenario-Specific Settings > Job Scheduling Management > Set Up BI Reporting for Job Scheduling Management.

Can I also monitor complete BW Process Chains?

A: Yes, you can use Business Process Monitoring in order to monitor complete BW Process Chains (identified by the respective chain ID) and monitor specific elements within a chain. The setup has to be done directly in the Business Process Monitoring setup and not within a Job Documentation. The Job Documentation application cannot really be used (yet) for BW Process Chains as those chains are always using generic job names.

If I am simply interested in monitoring a certain job status like "canceled", can I do this without Business Process Monitoring?

A: Yes, you can simply use the Job Management Work Center within the SAP Solution Manager in order to centrally check for a certain job status on the respective backend system. But this is then only a manual monitoring and no automated monitoring.

What happens when I activate Change Control for some Job Document?

A: If the Change Control is activated for some Job Document then this document can only be changed together with a valid Change Document as part of the Change Request Management. So only if your CRM Business Partner is assigend as processor for the Change Document then you can change the corresponding Job Document. All other users have no authorization to perform any changes on the Job Document.