Jobs
Background job administration manages the scheduled and batch work of an SAP system, month-end programs, interfaces, reports, that run without a user sitting there. Jobs are defined, scheduled and monitored primarily via transaction SM37 (and SM36 to define).
Background jobs need enough background work processes; too few and jobs queue and delay.
- Many SAP tasks are too long or too regular to run interactively, so they run as background jobs on background work processes.
- Cancelled or delayed jobs are a common operational issue, a failed nightly job can leave the business without expected results in…
- SM36: define/schedule a job (steps, timing, variants).
- Watch out: Not monitoring SM37 for cancelled jobs.
What background jobs are
Many SAP tasks are too long or too regular to run interactively, so they run as background jobs on background work processes. Examples: nightly MRP, periodic billing, data extracts, and interface processing. Jobs have steps (programs to run), a schedule, and a target server.
Defining and monitoring jobs
- SM36: define/schedule a job (steps, timing, variants).
- SM37: monitor jobs, their status (scheduled, released, active, finished, cancelled) and logs.
- Set up job chains and event-triggered jobs for dependencies.
Watching for failures
Cancelled or delayed jobs are a common operational issue, a failed nightly job can leave the business without expected results in the morning. Administrators monitor SM37, investigate cancellations (often via the job log and any dump), and reschedule or fix as needed.
Capacity
Background jobs need enough background work processes; too few and jobs queue and delay. Balancing dialog vs background work processes is part of keeping both interactive users and batch work healthy.
Common pitfalls
- Not monitoring SM37 for cancelled jobs.
- Too few background work processes, jobs queue.
- Ignoring job dependencies, running steps out of order.