Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 2
How to find the associated program name of a transaction ................................................................. 2
Using menu option Execute in Background ....................................................................................... 3
Using define background job schedule transaction .............................................................................. 4
Background job setup tasks ................................................................................................................. 7
Define dependent background jobs ................................................................................................. 9
Setup period values for batch jobs ..................................................................................................... 11
Using Job Wizard option .................................................................................................................... 13
How to find batch jobs ....................................................................................................................... 18
How to stop a background job ........................................................................................................... 19
How to Release a batch job that is Scheduled ............................................................................... 20
How to monitor background jobs ...................................................................................................... 21
View Spool Requests ......................................................................................................................... 21
List of collective run ........................................................................................................................... 23



Introduction
Its often required to run certain programs in background to avoid performance issues in SAP or to
automate routine tasks. Most of the time we schedule customer invoice creation, delivery creation are
background jobs in SAP. Sometimes if you have to do large number of data uploads to SAP, its advisable
to run those programs in background as well. There are various methods to run / schedule programs in
background. The advantage of background processing is that you can schedule the job to be run any
time you want.
How to find the associated program name of a transaction
Lets say to schedule delivery creation transaction VL10C as a background job. First thing you need
know is the ABAP program name associated with it. In order to find that you need to follow these steps;
Call the transaction (Eg: VL10C)
Click on the menu System / Status

You can get the program name from below.


Using menu option Execute in Background
Most of the standard SAP transactions SAP has given a menu options to run that program/ transaction in
background.
Eg: Run VL10A transaction in background
First you need to maintain the required selection options in the selection screens
After that select the below menu option


Using define background job schedule transaction
Transaction: SM36
You can also access same transaction from the below menu path in the Easy Access Screen.

Call the above transaction and specify the job name

Click on the button to maintain the relevant ABAP program name and the variant

Click on button

IMPORTANT:
When youre setting up a background job, you can schedule it under your name. But to execute the
program its advisable to have a system user created and assigned under USER field.
This way, you can ensure the job will run, even though your user ID is locked.
Such user ID is created as System users with SAP_ALL access; where as normal users are dialog users
with limited access. System user does not have a SAP login whereas dialog users have a SAP login.


Now you need to setup the start conditions of your batch job using button


Background job setup tasks
When youre going to setup a background job, below steps needs to be completed to specify the
required data / time that the job needs to be executed.

You will get the below pop up to set the desired start time for your background job. Depend on
the requirement you can set whether it needs to start immediately or at a given date/time.
o Click on , if you want to run the this program immediately in background

Save the job using button
Now go back to
o Click on , if you want to set a different date / time to start your program in
background. Once you click on that, system will give you a popup to specify the date /
time criteria

Maintain the date / time and save the job using button
In this example, I will set my job to start at 04.08.2014 at 6 PM


Define dependent background jobs
If you want to run your program after a certain batch job, then select the option
For example, in IS-AFS, the delivery creation batch job should run only after the allocation batch
job

Save the job using button
o In case if you cannot use any of above date / time options, but need to run in different
calendar, you can do that via factory calendar option. In order to do that, you will have
to select the button

Maintain the factory calendar options. If you want to learn about, how to create
your own factory calendar, please click here.

Save the job using button
Setup period values for batch jobs
If the batch job is a periodic job, you can specify the frequency of the job under button

Specify the period value.

Save the job using button
Finally you will be in the below screen and save the batch job using save button.


Using Job Wizard option
You can also follow same steps from the button in the SM36 transaction

Click on button

Enter your job name, priority and select button


Select radio button and click on button

Enter program name and select the variant and click on button

If you want to setup multi step background jobs, you can define it by selecting
check box
If its not required, click on button

Now you can define the frequency you want your job to be scheduled in the below screen. Click
on button

Click on button

Click on button

You will see below message in the status bar

How to find batch jobs
Transaction: SM37
You can find your batch job using the above transaction.

Status released are the batch jobs that will run next. Any batch job that is marked as Scheduled will
not run.

You can access all batch jobs created under your user ID using below menu path

How to stop a background job
If you want to stop any batch from running, you can set the Released status to Scheduled.
From transaction SM37, select the batch job and click on menu

Result:

Since the batch job is Scheduled, this will not run until you set it back to Released

How to Release a batch job that is Scheduled
Transaction: SM37
Select the batch job from the transaction SM37 and click on the button


How to monitor background jobs
Transaction: SM37
You can use the transaction SM37 to monitor background jobs.
View Spool Requests
Transaction: SP01
You can also access same transaction using below menu option

Use the selection criteria to find your job

You will see list of spool requests

After selecting the correct spool, by using button you can preview results

You can also access all spool requests created under your user ID using below menu option


List of collective run
As an example, if you schedule billing documents in batch job using program RV60SBAT, you can view
those billing documents that got created using transaction V.21




Author: Anupa Wijesinghe
E-Mail: anupaw@gmail.com / anupaw@learnsaptips.com
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