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Find frequently asked questions regarding job management in this blog, addressing Solution Manager 7.1 and 7.2. Unless not otherwise specified, topics are release independent.

Getting started

Job Request

Job Documentation

Scheduling of periodic jobs SAP ECC on Premise 

Scheduling of periodic jobs S/4HANA cloud Edition 

Job Scheduling via SAP Central Process Scheduling (CPS) by Redwood (or SAP BPA by Redwood)

Job Scheduling via Job Document (integration BC-XBP & SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood)

Job Monitoring (also integrated with Business Process Monitoring)

Change Management

Upgrade of Solution Manager 7.1 to 7.2

Central Job Overview

How is Job Management in SAP Solution Manager integrated with Job Scheduling in S/4 Hana using Application Jobs or Technical Jobs for Cloud Editions or On-Premise?

Job Management concepts and tools in Solution Manager have been developed for establishing a standardized, formal process for centralized background operations, i.e. processes for requesting new jobs or job changes, central job documentation, scheduling, central monitoring and error handling.

These concepts and tools are still valid for S4/HANA, however due to new architecture concepts in background operations, additional conditions apply. To explain them, in the subsequent sections the basic concept of S/4 Hana Background Job Handling will be outlined, followed by an overview on how to handle and schedule Jobs with Job Management in SAP Solution Manager.
Finally to summarize, scheduling options are listed in a table for the On-Premise and cloud scenario.

Concept of S/4 Hana Background Job Handling

With SAP S/4HANA the handling of background jobs was changed to address two main requirements of S/4HANA:

  • S/4HANA shall be based on Fiori UIs
    A Fiori based UI was introduced for the definition, scheduling and monitoring of background jobs. The Fiori UI is relevant for application jobs only, i.e. jobs that require end user interaction (see below).
  • S/4HANA shall be offered as software-as-a-service
    To minimize operation costs in a software-as-a-service environment (S/4HANA Cloud edition), manual activities should be avoided and rather replaced by automated actions. For this purpose, all required technical jobs shall be scheduled and monitored automatically. Manual activities by the operations team are required in case of errors only.

Both technical jobs and application jobs are based on the classical SM36 technology, i.e. all jobs can be found in transaction SM37 as well. In case of errors or unexpected behavior you might find additional information in transaction SM37 as not all information is being displayed in the new Fiori UIs yet.

Application job scheduling should not be changed via the classical transactions if a job has been created via the new Fiori based transaction (This should be finally the case for all application jobs, however this is still work in progress on SAP side).
Technical jobs don’t have a Fiori UI. In contrast to classical jobs they are not scheduled via transaction SM36 but they are scheduled automatically based on the job repository.

In the cloud editions the pre-defined jobs should not be changed manually. If the scheduling of a technical job will be changed via SM37, the system will revert any manual changes automatically.

In the on-premise edition the customer can decide if the predefined jobs (standard / housekeeping jobs) should be executed automatically or not. Via the Technical Job Repository, the customer can change or deactivate single or multiple jobs. If a job gets deactivated it’s again up to the customer to ensure, that a specific job will be executed.

General Handling of S/4 Hana Jobs using Job Management in SAP Solution Manager

How jobs can be handled using Job Management in SAP Solution Manager related to the S/4 Hana Background Job Handling concept is outlined below both for the Cloud and On-Premise Scenario.
 

  • S/4HANA Cloud Editions
    Documentation relevant are only the application jobs (SAP runs all technical jobs in this software as a service environment). With Solution Manager you can do the request and documentation process for application jobs and monitor them. If you integrate your Solution Manager with SAP BPA by Redwood, then you can also schedule application jobs via Solution Manager (into SAP BPA and from there into S/4HANA CE)
  • S/4HANA On Premise
    Documentation relevant are all jobs. With Solution Manager you can do the request and documentation process for application jobs and technical jobs and monitor them as they are both ABAP jobs. You can schedule into SM36 from Solution Manager, but scheduling of Application Jobs via external scheduler is supported only in the cloud environment.

Note: Both in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Editions and On-Premise, the technical job repository can NOT be connected to an external scheduler such as SAP BPA by Redwood, as there is no interface implemented. See SAP note 2822002.

Especially for Solution Manager Job Scheduling the following facts needs to be considered:

  • Technical jobs (controlled by job repository) should not be scheduled via Solution Manager Job Document as the job repository will “win” unless one deactivates it.
  • Technical jobs cannot be scheduled from Solution Manager into S/4HANA CE as those jobs are not relevant in the software-as-a-service use case.
  • S/4 HANA Application Jobs cannot be scheduled from Solution Manager
  • S/4 HANA CE Application jobs can be scheduled via an external scheduler that uses the published services (see note 2503171) or SAP BPA by Redwood
  • SMSE certified schedulers can be tightly integrated with Job Documentation. In any case the external entity (“Job Definition”) can be persisted in the job document, for documentation purposes.

Summary: Scheduling Options Overview

The table below provides an overview for different scheduling scenarios for SAP transactions, SAP Solution Manager and External Scheduler for Business Suite scenarios: 

 

Classical Business Suite (SM36/SM37)

S/4HANA On-Premise

S/4HANA Cloud Editions

How to schedule business/application jobs?

SM36 or application specific report screens

via Application Jobs UI, SM36 or specific report screens

via Application Jobs UI, and selected report screens
exposed via Launchpad and HTML GUI

Access to SM36/SM37

Yes

Yes

Customer: No
SAP: backend access required

Scheduling of technical/standard jobs

Scheduling via SM36 → Standard jobs (in customer responsibility),

Scheduling using technical job repository (transaction SJOBREPO), that is accessible via SM36 → Job Repository (in customer responsibility)

Automated scheduling using technical job repository (transaction SJOBREPO), (in SAP responsibility)
Manual scheduling of technical jobs only in exceptional cases.

Customer specific jobs (executing customer reports)

Possible

Possible

No (in exceptional cases via service center)

Usage of external job scheduler

Possible via XBP interface

Possible via XBP interface (jobs are visible in SM37, but not in Application Jobs UI).
Not possible for Technical Jobs.

Possible to schedule Application Jobs, if external scheduler has implemented the published service to schedule application jobs via SAP_COM_0064 (SAP note 2503171).
Not possible for Technical Jobs.

Central Job Scheduling from SAP Solution Manager into Managed System (using XBP Interface)

Possible for jobs scheduled via SM36/SM37

Possible for jobs scheduled via SM36/SM37

No


Central Job Scheduling from SAP Solution Manager via SMSE certified external scheduler (on premise) 

Possible via XBP connection of SMSE certified scheduler

Possible via XBP connection of SMSE certified scheduler (for jobs scheduled via SM36/SM37)

Possible for Application Jobs, if external scheduler has implemented the published service to schedule application jobs via SAP_COM_0064 (SAP note 2503171)

Further information:

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What is the recommended procedure to start with Job Management?

A: Job Management is technically implemented through a Guided Procedure in Solution Manager configuration
As the implementation has numerous integration aspects with different business and IT areas, we recommend following a project approach guided by a RSLF Business Process Operations Roadmap.
To get an comprehensive overview on the implementation, we recommend to attend an Expert Guided Implementation (EGI) for Job Management. Please check the prerequisites for attendance
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If I want to use the integration between SAP Solution Manager and SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood, or SAP Business Process Automation by Redwood, do I need to perform additional configuration steps?

A: See SAP note 1729766 CPS - Solution Manager integration setup and  2502427 SMSE/BAE setup in SAP BPA 9.0. The configuration is part of Job Management Setup in SAP Solution Manager Setup. For an illustrative overview, see How to connect SAP BPA by Redwood to Solution Manager and SAP ABAP System.

gives a general overview about the required activities. It addresses also both versions of SAP CPS. An integral part of this integration is the SMSE interface (Solution Manager Scheduling Enabler).
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What kind of document is a Job Request?

A: The Job Request is a CRM document usually of transaction type SMIN. In Solution Manager 7.0 this was of type SLFJ, or SLFN, the normal Service Desk document. It is recommended to copy this Transaction type to an own transaction type, for e.g. ZMIN.
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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".
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What do I need to fill-out in order to send a Job Request?

A: The following SDN Blog explains the major sections that a Job Request contains and what it takes to fill them out Creating a Job Request with SAP Solution Manager . Generally speaking you need to fill out the basic 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 user that calls the application) and sold-to-party (normally automatically derived in the background.
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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.
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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. More information can be found here How to configure SAP's standard Job Request form - Part 1 and How to configure SAP's standard Job Request form - Part 2
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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"
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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. Both the job request and the incident have an own number assigned.
By the way it is also no document in the Knowledge Warehouse of SAP Solution Manager.
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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.
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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. More information can be found in the SDN Blog Implementation of a naming convention in Job Management .
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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. For more information refer to the SDN Blog Job Documentation Templates
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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. For more information refer to the SDN Blog Creation of Job Documentation Macros
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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. Details can be found in the SDN Blog A new column in transaction SM37 - Job Documentation
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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 longer 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.
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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"
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Can I import / mass create Job Documents (and corresponding Monitoring)?

A: Yes, see here, how you can mass create Job Documents using the Import Jobs (https://<server>:<port>/sap/bc/webdynpro/sap/wd_ags_ejr_job_import?sap-client=<xxx>) application, that fetches job information from a managed system or from an SMSE certified scheduler. Note, that as of Solution Manager 7.2 SP08 there is an alternative tool to mass create Job Documents from an excel sheet namely report AC_JSM_JOBDOC_MASS_MAINTENANCE. You can download the template excel, fill it with job name and system client and read the job details from the remote system. Then you can enrich the information and create the corresponding job documents with the option to automatically create monitoring objects, optionally linked to a technical scenario. If you linked them to a technical scenario you can access the monitoring objects via the scenario, configure and activate the monitoring.

How this tool can be used in the context of implementing the SAP BPA by Redwood job scheduler is explained here.
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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?"
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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.
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Which job types can be managed from Solution Manager without an external Scheduler?

A: Solution Manager itself has no scheduling capabilites for Managed Systems. If Solution Manager only is used without any external scheduler connected, then Job scheduling information is handed over from Solution Manager directly via interface to the Managed SAP Systems scheduler, and Job execution itself is triggered by the Managed SAP Systems scheduler.

SAP Systems scheduling interfaces are available for

  • ABAP, here the interface 'BC-XBP' is used on the remote SAP ABAP System ('SM36'), also locally on SAP Solution Manager itself, and  
  • SAP BW process chains. By using the interface 'BW-SCH', Solution Manager can schedule SAP BW process chain headers in the Managed SAP BW System. Solution Manager offers only a limited Job documentation Integration with BW process chains. Scheduling works only with the Detailed Job Documentation (old UI), but the Job document structure does not cover SAP BW specifics and cannot be handled by Mass Maintenance report AC_JSM_JOBDOC_MASS_MAINTENANCE.

Note that the Detailed Job Documentation (old UI, available since SolMan 7.1) also allows to choose Job type 'SBOP' (SAP Business Objects Platform jobs) and 'Data Services' jobs.
However, there is no scheduler interface currently availble, so these job types are not supported for scheduling, see the respective error message 'Virtual interface (SBOP / Data Services) can’t be used to communicate with remote system' in Job documentation. In the Simple Job Documentation layout (new UI based on UI5), only ABAP Job type can be selected.
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If a job is scheduled 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

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Is Job Management providing event-driven capabilities without SAP CPS?

A: In general, Job Management in Solution Manager is acting as governance level, expert scheduling is provided through SAP CPS. This implies, that
Job Management in Solution Manager does not provide event driven scheduling dependencies. You can schedule Jobs or Job Chains through Job Management either directly on ABAP Systems (like SM36, using BC-XBP interface), or using Schedulers, like SAP CPS. SAP CPS itself provides powerful event control capabilities, like file events for e.g. It is not planned to provide this within Job Management, as this is provided through SAP CPS.

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How to schedule periodic Jobs in S/4HANA cloud, manually?

A: In the S/4 HANA CE context "Application Jobs" have been introduced offering end users to schedule periodic jobs. The usage of the tool is described in SAP help.

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How to schedule periodic Jobs in S/4HANA cloud, with a Job Scheduler?

A: SAP note 2503171 (Usage of External Job Scheduling solutions with SAP Integrated Business Planning), describes the background and details on how to schedule jobs into SAP Integrated Business Planning (or more generically into S/4HANA or C/4HANA via an external job scheduling tool like Cisco Tidal, CA Autosys, IBM Tivoli, Redwood BPA. (Basically, the external scheduler must have implemented SAP_COM_0064, BC_EXT_APPJOB_MANAGEMENT).
Note that both in SAP S/4HANA and S/4HANA CE, the technical job repository can NOT be connected to an external scheduler such as SAP BPA by Redwood, as there is no interface implemented. Hence, Technical Jobs cannot be scheduled using an external scheduler. See SAP note 2822002.

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How to control scheduling in S/4HANA cloud, without a Job Scheduler?

Q: We move to S/4HANA Cloud. In current SAP on premise we schedule jobs to run under a system user and restrict dialog users to be able to schedule and run jobs, i.e. only allow the ones that have assigned a specific add-on role. This way we have control over who runs business jobs which is required per our SOX auditing. We also need to keep the execution logs for a year for both the jobs executed successfully of failed. Alerting is required (e.g. via mail ) when a job fails or long run.

As we understand SAP help access can be granted per job template and capability to run jobs is granted per functional role to each area. We wonder, if there is a way to have a generic user across functional areas to schedule and run all possible?

A: S/4HANA Cloud strategy is to deliver for every application a specific Application Job tile, via which application specific jobs can be scheduled and monitored. These tiles appear, if a user has a certain business catalogue assigned. A generic user that can schedule all Application Jobs is not delivered. It is always a business user that schedules jobs. If you want to schedule all business jobs with one (generic) user, than you need to create an (additional) business user, that gets all business catalogues assigned.

For monitoring and alerting, please refer to Job & Automation Monitoring with SAP Cloud ALM.

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What is the difference between Chargeable and OEM Version of SAP BPA and SAP CPS?

Redwood has introduced a new scheduler Version 9, distributed via the SAP price list as 'SAP Business Process Automation by Redwood' (SAP BPA). See also SAP Note 2005087 - SAP BPA V9 for further information regarding improved features.
This version is available only as Chargeable version, whereas the OEM version (free version) delivered with SAP Netweaver Java 7.3 stack is still the previous Version 8, named 'SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood' (SAP CPS). Technically it is also possible to run the OEM version with a chargeable license.

Feature overview in Chargeable and OEM version

To make it more convenient, we have published an overview on our SCN Wiki: Overview SAP BPA / SAP CPS

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How many Systems can be connected and licensed with SAP CPS?

Licensing goes per process Server, that is required to connect any productive SAP or legacy system for scheduling and monitoring.
The license covers for a defined number of process servers to connect to scheduling systems a set of 4 CPS licenses, covering 2 non-prod sets of licenses, and one set that can be used for either non-prod or failover for production.

For each of the CPS environments, it is possible to install even several CPS Servers, but the total number of connected SAP or legacy systems cannot exceed the defined no. of process servers over the whole of productive CPS Servers.

So for example, you can install 1 prod CPS Server connecting to 10 SAP systems, or 2 prod CPS servers connecting to 5 each (or 6 and 4 etc), but you cannot install 2 prod CPS servers connecting to for example 6 each as the total would exceed the 10 for production.

If you run jobs against prod and non-prod systems from the same CPS, the entire CPS counts as production, so counts against the 10 production. So this is not recommended from licensing point of view, also from technical point of view it will be hard to test patches because you patch the entire CPS in one go.

In general, the recommendation is to separate the production CPS from any DEV or QA Landscape

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How many Solution Managers can be connected to SAP CPS?

In the Basic Version 1 Sol Man can be connected.

In the Full Version, Several Sol Mans can be connected. This is defined in the parameter ProcessServerService.SAP.BAEConnector.limit . The BAE connection is typically the same number like process servers, as it is not only used for SolMan but also for BW and FCC integration.

So for scheduling and monitoring is possible to connect two Solman to one CPS, but from license and setup perspective it is questionable. In general, the recommendation is to separate the production CPS from any DEV or QA Landscape

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How is SAP BPA integrated in Hana Enterprise Cloud

Hana Enterprise Cloud (HEC) is a managed, private cloud hosting service for SAP HANA and its related applications. Customers can operate their own systems in HEC themselves or via SAP partner. There are two options for using SAP BPA as scheduler.

Option 1: All customer systems are in HEC
If all customer systems (SAP and non-SAP) are located in the HEC, it makes sense to transfer CPS / BPA also to HEC.

Option 2: Mixed Scenario - Not all systems are in HEC
If only a part of the solution will be located in the HEC, customers have the choice whether SAP CPS /  SAP BPA remain on-premise and communication with cloud systems is established with Hana Cloud integration (HCI), or SAP CPS / SAP BPA is moved into HEC as well, then communication to on-premise System via HCI needs to be established respectively.

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Is SAP CPS (free  version) available with SolMan 7.2 in Cloud scenarios? 

SAP CPS and SAP BPA are different scheduler versions. The scheduler is also not part from Solution Manager, but part of SAP Netweaver Java Stack.

See more details here:

What is the difference between Chargeable and OEM Version of SAP BPA and SAP CPS?
How many Systems can be connected and licensed with SAP CPS? 

With SAP NW 7.x SAP CPS is shipped (also called version 8). This version will stay in the NW products as long as SAP NW 7.x is supported by SAP. The CPS version can be used as OEM without additional costs for the customers but with many restrictions regarding functionality. Also the maintenance efforts are meanwhile minimized by Redwood. 

The successor version of SAP CPS is SAP BPA. For SAP BPA there is no OEM version available, only a chargeable Version.
All new development will be only available with SAP BPA, e.g. if HANA should be used as our DB this is available only with SAP BPA.

According to Product Availability Matrix (PAM), SAP CPS (-> scheduler version 8) reaches end of mainstream maintenance 31.12.2020. See SAP CPS 8.0 BY REDWOOD in PAM. This applies to the OEM version, as well as to the full version of SAP CPS.
Existing customers need to upgrade to SAP BPA (scheduler version 9) and purchase licenses, if not already contained in the customers SAP software license contract.

SAP BPA is already available in 2 versions 9.0 (based on JAVA 7) and 9.1 (based on JAVA 8). 9.1 requires SAP NW 7.5x and higher.
For SAP CPS there are no license costs charged in the cloud, but there might be charges from cloud provider (AWS, Azure, HEC) for installing / hosting SAP CPS. In case a customer wants to use the free HANA licenses that he gets with SAP Solution Manager 7.2, only SAP BPA will run on HANA, but not the free SAP CPS version delivered with SAP NW.

Another option is the migration from SAP BPA / SAP CPS to the Redwood Cloud Solution RunMyJobs (BPA on a non Netweaver stack in the Amazon cloud). In case there are still on-premise systems to connect, RunMyJobs need to be connected via Cloud Connector. 

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Where can I find more information about SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood?

A: Please refer to http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-26195 for more information about the tool SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood. Please note that a new version is available, called SAP Business Process Automation (Version 9) An upgrade from SAP CPS cause minor efforts, but requires NW 7.30 Java Stack as platform
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Which external scheduling tools can be integrated with SAP Solution Manager?

A: The SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood is tightly integrated with SAP Solution Manager. Meanwhile further scheduler are also certified for the SMSE interface, namely CA Workload Automation Advanced Integration, IBM Tivoli Workload Scheduler and Automic One Automation. Nevertheless you can of course also use Job Request, Job Documentation and Job Monitoring functionality in combination with other 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 transfer 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.
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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". The exact details are described in the SDN Blog An easy way to identify end-user scheduled jobs which bypass your central scheduling tool
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Can I control end users scheduling ABAP jobs - without interfering to much with the way they work?

A: Yes, that is possible. A quite common customer issue is how to control end users that schedule jobs bypassing the central scheduling. There are different options. You can redirect end users from SM36 / SM37 to the Solution Manager job request process (see Job Control in SAP Online Help). Alternatively, you can restrict them to one time batch jobs (see SAP Note 1716340 "A user should not generate periodic jobs") and advise them to open a job request if they need a periodic batch job. See here for further information on both options. Please, note that the redirect is not triggered from the delete action in SM37 and is not catching a job launched from an application transaction, but only from basis transaction SM36, SM37, SA38. 

Another alternative is Intercepting SAP Jobs if you have an external scheduler, e.g. SAP BPA by Redwood. For a demo on how to intercept a job using transaction CRIT see here.

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We scheduled job SAP_WORKFLOW_ACTION from Solution Manager Job Document and it started to run under the user maintained in the TMW RFC connection. However, soon the scheduling switched back to user DDIC. How can this happen?

A: If your managed system is an S/4HANA onPremise system, there is a new feature called “Technical Job Repository” which automatically schedules technical  jobs from “Job Definition” objects. The Job Definition objects can be viewed in transaction SJOBREPO. There are seven SAP_WORKFLOW* job defs.

Background info is here: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2190119

Jobrepo uses an automatic mechanism which schedules/unschedules jobs every hour. This mechanism is present in every SAP S/4HANA system (cloud and onPremise).

You can monitor what jobrepo is doing in SLG1 (application log), use JOB_ACTIVATION as object. If jobrepo changed your job of same name, you will find a message there.

In case of conflicts (because e.g. you do not want Jobrepo to schedule/change certain jobs)  you can disable a job definition (i.e. make jobrepo ignore this job definition) in transaction SJOBREPO (must do that in the client where the jobdef is relevant, e.g. SAP_WORKFLOW* job definitions are only relevant for a business client).

You can control which user Jobrepo uses to schedule its jobs: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2339022

DDIC is indeed the default if no specific user has been set via above method.

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When I schedule two jobs with a predecessor-successor relationship (start condition "Start after job"), I can schedule the predecessor periodically, but not the successor! Is there a better solution?

A: BTC_EVENT_RAISE program is available to solve this technical problem. Background info is here: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/919458. To define "customer" events use transaction SM62 tab BckProcEvnts.

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We use the Job Management functionality in SAP Solution Manager, i.e. document our jobs and schedule them centrally from Solution Manager. Now we have a new project, which makes a set of jobs obsolete and requires a new set of jobs to be scheduled at go live. How can we mass schedule / de-schedule documented jobs?

A: You can use the mass scheduling report RAGS_JSM_MASS_SCHEDULE available as of 7.2 SP07. Background info on the tool can be found here: https://blogs.sap.com/2018/02/21/job-management-mass-scheduling-tool/

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We scheduled a job from Solution Manager Job Document (type BC-XBP). How can we still change it in SM37 (also if Solution Manager is down)?

A: A job that is scheduled via Solution Manager Job Document gets a link to the Job Document. On trying to change such a job, you get redirected to Solution Manager. If you do not want this, use Remove Link in the scheduling UI. Via Copy Job option you can link the job document again to the job. If you like the redirect in principle, but you need e.g. to submit the job again in case of failure you can do the following (also if Solution Manager is down): 

  1. Select the job in SM37 and use option "Copy" via the Job menu (Ctrl+F6). Via this you can create an identical job (i.e. same steps) in status scheduled, that is not linked to the job document.
  2. Select the new job in SM37 and use option "Change" via the Job menu (Ctrl+F11). Click on the "Start Condition" button and to schedule the job immediately (as one time job).

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We scheduled jobs from Solution Manager Job Document (type BC-XBP). At system upgrade we need to de-schedule all jobs. How can we handle this?

As part of production downtime activities, Service Management teams perform pre and post downtime background job manipulation. These activities are detailed below:

Pre-Downtime
1. Jobs are manually moved from “Released” Status to “Scheduled” status via SM37 by Service Management
2. Priority Jobs are taken into account
3. Non-Priority jobs that are scheduled to run during the course of the downtime are taken into account

Post-Downtime
1. Priority Jobs are supposed to be released, meaning moving the status from “Scheduled” to “Released” status manually in SM37
2. Non-priority jobs that are scheduled to run during the course of the downtime are re-scheduled to run on its next effective schedule after the downtime

In the event that Solution Manager is down, changes cannot be made in the jobs that are linked to a Job Documentation. While it is possible to move jobs linked to Job Documentation from “Released” status to “Scheduled” status manually via SM37, moving them back to “Released” status is not possible. Is there any way to enable this in the managed systems?

A: Before downtime execute report BTCTRNS1 to put all jobs that are in status "Released" to status "Released/Susp". After downtime execute report BTCTRNS2 to put jobs of status "Released/Susp" to status 'Released' again.

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We scheduled a job from Solution Manager Job Document (type BC-XBP). Now somehow we can't stop the job any more. How can we delete it?

A: A hard way to delete jobs controlled by Solution Manager is to use report RSBTCDEL2 as described in How to delete jobs which have documentation.

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How are Background Jobs scheduled via SM36 handled by SAP Basis system with respect to day light switch?

A: In general the SAP Basis System uses time zones and daylight saving time switches based on daylight saving time rules.
Regarding background Job handling, 

  • SM36 supports daylight saving time switches based on daylight saving time rules (refer to Transaction STZBC), i.e. job start times are adapted automatically for scheduled jobs.
  • SM36 supports several time zones (SAP_BASIS > 7.51), i.e. you have the option "Alternative time zone" when scheduling a job, i.e. the date of the execution will reflect the time zone in case of restrictions (i.e. factory calendars).

Note:

  1. In SM37 the job times are always displayed in system time.
  2. UTC is a time zone without a daylight saving time switch, if you use it as your SAP system time, then the SAP system will not adjust to the local time. The UTC timer ('Universal Time Coordinated UTC') must not be changed. The UTC timer counts the seconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00, Greenwich Mean Time. With a correct setting, it contains the same value at the same time in all hosts, regardless of their location.

See further information:
501078 - Time zones in background processing
741734 - Incorrect times due to the time zone settings
SAP Help: Time Zones (NW7.4)

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How about job scheduling from Solution Manager Job Document (type BC-XBP) and day light switch?

A: If you schedule a job via Solution Manager Job Document into the managed ABAP system via the BC-XBP interface, you basically use SM36 remotely from Solution Manager. With SAP Note 3170310 the XBP interface was enhanced, so that an "Alternative Time Zone" can be handed over. With SAP Note 3244718 Solution Manager is enhanced so that it hands over the schedule time with time zone, if in the managed system SAP Note 3170310 has been applied, else the job start time maintained in Solution Manager is converted into the remote systems local time. In general the business user can request and document a job in his local time (zone) in Solution Manager and Solution Manager takes care of adjusting the jobs start time according to the local time in the remote system. For example, if a job shall run at 6 am British time (summer and winter), than business would request 6 am GMT:

  • if in the remote system SAP Note 3170310 is not applied and the time zone is CET then, the job is scheduled at 7 am CET (summer and winter).
  • if in the remote system SAP Note 3170310 is applied, the job is scheduled at 6 am GMT (as alternative time zone, independent of the time zone of the system).

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In SAP BPA by Redwood, starting the SAP inbound connection it fails with an error. How to fix this?

A: You might have seen, that the connection test for the RFC destination used (transaction SM59, connection type 'T' = TCP/IP connection) fails as well. The reason could be, that your gateway does not allow external programs to be registered. Please refer to SAP Note 353597 on how to configure the security file (reginfo.dat). More details on the issue you can find in the troubleshooting chapter of this document: How to connect to SAP Business Process Automation by Redwood (BPA) to SAP Solution Manager.

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We use an external scheduler for scheduling jobs in our SAP ERP system. We think about replacing it and use the SAP NetWeaver Job Scheduler instead (in combination with SAP Solution Manager for Central Job Documentation). Which aspects do I need to consider?

A: As described here (as of page 25), the external scheduler SAP BPA by Redwood (just like other job schedulers) has capabilities that the SAP NetWeaver Job Scheduler does not have. So the starting point when wanting to replace an external scheduler is to check your job scheduling requirements and decide, if you need:

  1. Job chains cross system
  2. Jobs to run only at specific times during the day
  3. Job start times depend on different time zones and factory calendar in the same ABAP system that has a Basis version is below 7.51.

If you do not need these capabilities or you have a work around, you could consider to do job scheduling using the SAP NetWeaver Job Scheduler in the individual ABAP systems. To have a central governance you could use SAP Solution Managers Job Documentation / Job Management. Please note, that from a Job Document in SAP Solution Manager you can schedule a job, but this means, that you actually hand over the job scheduling information via the XBP interface to the managed system, i.e. SAP Solution Manager does not act as a Job Scheduling tool (with the advantage, that you do not need high availability for it).

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How to control automation processes without SAP BPA by Redwood (and without SAP Solution Manager)?

Q: We currently use Redwood as Job Management but learned, that end of 2024 SAP will not support it any more (3216013 - End of Mainstream Maintenance for SAP BPA by Redwood 31.12.2024). Will SAP Cloud ALM offer a similar functionality?

A: SAP Cloud ALM offers standardized ALM functions focused on operational efficiency and is free of charge for SAP customers (see here). For process automation SAP offers SAP Build Process Automation, but this product is not a successor or replacement for SAP BPA by Redwood, which has a very strong focus and a broad range features for efficient batch process (chain) execution. To replace SAP BPA by Redwood, one needs to look in detail at the features and functions that are used and

  • for those processes, where SAP BPA by Redwood is just used for triggering batch execution, the product inbuilt job scheduling tools (e.g. SAP Application Jobs in case of S/4HANA) shall be used.
  • for those processes, where SAP BPA by Redwood is used for triggering batch execution, processing of data and triggering follow on executions depending on the results, one should evaluate the capabilities offered by SAP Build Process Automation.
  • for monitoring of the automation processes, one could use Job & Automation Monitoring with SAP Cloud ALM which is retrieving job execution data directly from all SAP services and systems (including SAP Build Process Automation).

Please note, that it is planned to offer in SAP Cloud ALM for Implementation functionality for Job Request Management, i.e. for a controlled go-live of automation processes. For a high level overview on how SAP Cloud ALM and SAP Build Process Automation work together, see here.

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Can I monitor non-SAP jobs with Solution Manager Job 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 Job Monitoring also to non-SAP jobs. 
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Can I monitor complete BW Process Chains?

A: Yes, you can use Job Monitoring in order to monitor complete BW Process Chains (identified by the respective chain ID), i.e. the header as well as (optionally) all or specific elements within a chain. It offers technical metrics like Status, Duration, Start Delay, End Delay, Out of Time Window, Not Started on Time, but also application metrics like Records Sent, Data Packages Processed, Job Log Messages and Job Log Content. For an overview on the capabilities and monitoring setup entry points (including a link to further details) see here.

Typically there is the wish to monitor BW chains with low configuration effort, i.e. to configure monitoring for the chain header only, but to get alerted also, if an element of the chain fails. In fact, it is possible to monitor the chain header only and to get alerted for failing steps, but the CCMS agent job is supervising aborts on hourly basis only, i.e. the alert might be propagated delayed to the header and Solution Manager will not alert immediately after a step failed. 
Please note, that with Solution Manager 7.2 SP10 (downport via SAP Note 2815177) in the alert text for the chain header the information on the failing step(s) is included and that with BW/4HANA, a new watchdog concept was developed which has an intelligent selection on which chains need supervision currently. It runs automatically every 30 seconds, so all of the earlier watchdogs became obsolete with this and propagation to header level happens within 30 seconds (and not within an hour).

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Can I monitor job run-times, and report on the trend over the last couple weeks and see, which jobs deteriorated?

A: Yes, this kind of trend reporting is possible, even without configuring job monitoring by making use of the job health check (setup guide available at Job Management) that collects job data into SAP BW and setup dashboards. As of Solution Manager 7.2 SP08 the "ABAP Job - Health Status (cross system)" and "ABAP Job - Cleasing and Optimization" dashboards are available out of the box (https://<server>:<port>/sap/bc/ui2/flp?sap-client=<client>&sap-language=EN#Action-SMConfKPIVisualization --> Business Process Operations). For details on the "ABAP Job - Health Status (cross system)" dashboard, please see here. 

Note, that reporting on the run-time of monitored jobs is inbuilt into the job monitoring application view Analytics, option Performance Overview. The data is coming from multi-provider 0SMJPMCMP, the query is 0SMJPMCMP_PERF_GRAPH.

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Can I monitor jobs for "Cancellation" and "Delay" without setting up job monitoring?

A: Yes, you can activate the job health check (setup guide available at Job Management) data extraction and build a dashboard that show you cross system job cancellations, technical delays and even run-time deterioration of jobs. Via such a dashboard you have no automated alerting though. As of Solution Manager 7.2 SP08 the "ABAP Job - Health Status (cross system)" dashboard is available in your system (https://<server>:<port>/sap/bc/ui2/flp?sap-client=<client>&sap-language=EN#Action-SMConfKPIVisualization --> Business Process Operations). For details on the dashboard, please see here. 
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Can I do Job Monitoring without Alerting?

A: You cannot deactivate alert creation, but as of SP07, you can configure job monitoring in a way, that created alerts will be auto-confirmed:

  1. Unflag “Alert per Job Instance”.
  2. Flag “Automatic Alert Confirmation”.
  3. Set the “Data Retention Period” as small as possible, optimally to the time between two job executions.
  4. Set the “Total Number of Job Instances”, to the number of job instances you expect to be executed between two data collections (e.g. a daily job, that does not run in parallel, will produce one job instance per day).

As a result, if there is a problem with the monitored job, you will get a red rating in the monitoring application and an alert created. If at the next execution, there is no problem with the job, green metrics will be reported and as the old red metrics will be outdated (as the data retention time is over), the alert will be auto-confirmed. In the monitoring application the job rating will turn green, as by reducing the number of instances only the new instances will be relevant.

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I have thousands of ABAP jobs. What would be the best practice to monitor them with low effort?

A: In order to monitor a job and to get alerted, you need to configure a monitoring object for the corresponding system and client. In case of many jobs, this is a considerable effort. To reduce the effort you have some options, depending on your needs:

Option 1: Your Job Names allow a pattern based monitoring. In this case with one monitoring object you can monitor a set of jobs.

Option 2: Alerting is not so important for you, a dashboard displaying problems with jobs is sufficient for most of the jobs. In this case we recommend to activate the job health check (setup guide available at Job Management) data extraction and build a dashboard that show you cross system job cancellations, technical delays and even run-time deterioration of jobs. As of Solution Manager 7.2 SP08 the "ABAP Job - Health Status (cross system)" dashboard is available in your system (https://<server>:<port>/sap/bc/ui2/flp?sap-client=<client>&sap-language=EN#Action-SMConfKPIVisualization --> Business Process Operations). For details on the dashboard, please see here. 

Option 3: You have the same jobs in different systems and clients (e.g. Standard Jobs). In this case - as of Solution Manager 7.2 SP09 (down port to SP06 is possible), you could setup monitoring for one system client and make use of the utility report AC_JOBMON_APPLY_SETTINGS, with which you can copy over the configured monitoring object to other system clients, that are linked to the job document of the job via a technical scenario. With utility report AC_JOBMON_MASS_AUTOCONFIG you can activate en mass the created monitoring objects.

Option 4: As of Solution Manager SP05, an excel based job monitoring object mass maintenance is offered, when you set up job monitoring via Solution Manager Configuration → Application Operations → Job Monitoring.
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I have a frequently executed job. I want to get alerted only, if the job fails for a longer time period. How can I achieve this?

A: With Solution Manager 7.2 SP07, you have the option to configure monitoring for such jobs in a way, that you will get notified only, if a problem persists for a longer time. Please see here for details. Alternatively (also below 7.2 SP07) you could use the Table Entry Counter, which is part of the Business Process Monitoring framework within SAP Solution Manager, to get alerted, if the number of successful executions of a job drops below a certain number. For details please refer to this document.

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I monitor a job. The job fails and in the monitoring application, I see that the summary status is red. The next execution of the job is successful. In the monitoring application, I see that the summary status is still red! Why?

A: The job monitoring application displays as summary rating the worst rating of any job in the list of job instances. The job instances listed in the monitoring application, depends on two parameters that you can configure in the configuration UI:

     1. Total number of instances

     2. Data Retention Period (in days)”

When you create a new job monitoring object the number of job instances is defaulted to 12 and the data retention period to 2 days. This means that for an hourly job, you will see typically 12 instances in the monitoring application and for a daily job 2 instances. Why is 12 defaulted? As the default data collection period is 60 min, the data collector will return 12 job instances for a job that runs every 5 min. In this case for the summary rating all 12 job instances are relevant.

For the cases, where the job frequency is lower than the data collection frequency and the status of the last job execution is relevant for the status of the job, setting the number of instances to 1 is the right choice. So please decide yourself and specify the number of job instances relevant for the summary rating of the job. Make sure the number is at least the number of expected job instances between two data collections, as otherwise you might not be alerted for a failed job instance.

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I use job monitoring and face some issues, like grey metrics. What do I need to check?

A: For a first job monitoring troubleshooting, please follow this guide.

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I want to check if the job monitoring object names equal the job names, how can I check this efficiently?

A: Use the “Mass Maintenance” option (available with 7.2 SP05), to download into an excel all job monitoring objects linked to a technical scenario. Beside parameters, you will also see the name of the job and the name of the job monitoring object. Via this tool you can quickly adjust and upload the changes. The “Mass Maintenance” is offered in Solution Manager Configuration -> Application Operations -> Job Monitoring, once you have selected a technical scenario. Please note, that as of 7.2 SP07 you can assign existing job monitoring objects to a technical scenario and therefore use the “Mass Maintenance” also for job monitoring objects, that originate from Business Process Monitoring.

An alternative technical option would be to compare the job names with the names of the job monitoring objects in table MAI_MONOBJPARAM:

1. via SE16 get from table ACCONTEXTDIR the CONTEXT_IDs for the objects of CONTEXT_TYPE “JOB”

2. via SE16 select from table MAI_MONOBJPARAM for the CONTEXT_IDs the values of the PARAMETER_IDs “MON_OBJ_NAME” and “JOBNAME_FILTER”

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I am executing an important job and I know, it is writing to the application log. How can I easily identify the SLG1 entries written by the job?

A: From a job instance in SM37 you can directly navigate to the corresponding application log (SLG1) entries as described in https://blogs.sap.com/2013/02/01/linking-the-application-log-with-corresponding-background-job/ .

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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.
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Is a transport mechanism with Versioning available with Job Management?

This is partly provided through Job Management in Solution Manager. In Job Management, you can use versioning for job documentations. This is a manual process, versions are not created automatically.
ABAP based reports for Jobs / Variants need to be transported via Transport Management. For SAP BPA (successor of SAP CPS, prerequisite is NW 7.30 Java Stack) an integration to CTS+ is available. Without that, job  definitions need to be transported through export/import on SAP CPS.
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Is Job Management in SAP Solution Manager SOX compliant?

Regarding the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (see SOX in SAPedia) there is no formal statement for Solution Manager SOX compliance in place, as SolMan is typically not affecting financial transactions directly.
With regards to Job Management, it might happen that jobs with financial impact can be scheduled, and therefore there might be a need for governance and logging.

In Solution Manager Job Management there should be sufficient features to fulfill SOX compliance, such as change governance through an ITSM process, or even ChaRM, also change logs for every job documentation used for scheduling through Solution Manager.
In case SOX compliance need to be fulfilled, requirements need to tested and approved by the customer and/or the certification auditing authority.

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Can Job Documentations be transferred from 7.1 to a greenfield 7.2 Solution Manager?

You have a 7.1 SOLMAN with active Job Documentation and scheduling and intend to start on 7.2 from scratch and transfer 7.1 process documentation (via project download and upload) and perform Solution Documentation content activation as suggested by SAP.
1. Will the job documentation content be included in the transport of the 7.1 project?
2. Will it be activated by Content Activation?

A: In principle yes, but upfront of content activation you need to transfer your job documentations on DB level using reports RAGS_JOBDOC_DOWNLOAD_ALL and RAGS_JOBDOC_UPLOAD_ALL (please note, that job monitoring is not transferred): 

Step 1: Use reports RAGS_JOBDOC_DOWNLOAD_ALL and RAGS_JOBDOC_UPLOAD_ALL to download the job documentation tables content into an XML file and upload them again. Via this approach you do a DB level copy, i.e. all document IDs stay, but attachments are lost. In a greenfield 7.2 Solution manager the resulting job documentations will point not existing logical components, solution directory contexts or technical scenarios. Consequently access to the related systems (e.g. for scheduling) will not be possible.

Step 2: Restore the system relationship:

Case a: Job Documentations were not referenced to solution directory contexts, but only to logical components or technical scenarios.
→ Execute report AGS_EJR_SMUD_MIGRATION. The report will try to map the logical components to new logical component groups and where this is not possible offer you to map logical components to technical scenarios

Case b: Job Documentations were referenced to solution directory contexts (and also to logical components or technical scenarios)
-→ On 7.1 copy the relevant solution directory contexts into a SOLAR project, to get the link between Job Documentation and process context persisted in the project. Then transfer the project content to the greenfield 7.2 Solution Manager and execute content activation. After content activation execute report AGS_EJR_SMUD_MIGRATION.  

Step 3: Migrate scheduling information (as on 7.2 there is only one scheduling version for a JD)

By executing report RAGS_EJR_MIG_SYSTEM_SCHE_INFO the job documentations with scheduling information in more than one version will be adapted.

With the steps described above, you will have the job documents (not the job requests) available, except for the attachments to the job documents. However, there will be pointers to not existing “external” data, i.e. to

a) users (Job Management stores user IDs in in different tables)
b) business partners (Job Management stores Business Partner numbers in different tables)

For the pointers to work
a) for users, you need to create the users with the same IDs in the 7.2 system
b) for the business partners, you need to
a. create them in the 7.2 system
b. create a mapping between old and new business partner IDs
c. develop a Z report for the update of the business partner numbers in table fields AGS_JOB_DEF~OWNER, AGS_PARTNER~PARTNER_IDENT and AGS_ESCALATION~ PARTNER_IDENT.
d. execute the Z report

Before running RAGS_JOBDOC_DOWNLOAD_ALL and RAGS_JOBDOC_UPLOAD_ALL you need to implement the following notes into the 7.1 and 7.2 Solution Manager:
2514554 - JSM: Business Information lost after download and upload Job Documentations to another system
2562919 - JSM: steps lost during download/upload of Job Documentation
2307924 - JSM: New report to download and upload all Job Documentation from one system to another

Note: If no Content Activation takes place, i.e. you do not transfer solution documentation information to 7.2 then for the replacement of the Logical Components by Logical Component Groups SAP offers the report RAGS_JOBDOC_FIND_MISSING_LC (see note 2610625).

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After upgrade to Solution Manager 7.2 are my job documentations already usable or is a migration needed?

A: There are two major changes, that require a migration of job documents. First, logical components are replace in 7.2 by logical component groups and second the scheduling information within a job document is not versioned any more. For the migration of the pointer to logical components you need to execute report AGS_EJR_SMUD_MIGRATION and for the migration of the scheduling information you need to execute report RAGS_EJR_MIG_SYSTEM_SCHE_INFO. The process in detail is:

Step 0: Prepare content activation on your Solution Manager 7.1 (if you want to reuse process documentation and related job monitoring that you defined on 7.1 also on your 7.2 Solution Manager)

Step 1: Upgrade your Solution Manager to 7.2 and implement notes relevant to reports AGS_EJR_SMUD_MIGRATION and RAGS_EJR_MIG_SYSTEM_SCHE_INFO.

Step 2: Make sure you have logical component groups containing the scheduling relevant systems. This means, you either perform content activation or you create a solution with logical component groups containing the scheduling relevant systems in the correct system role (so that a automatic mapping is possible). Note that if you did content activation as post upgarde activity, accessible from Solution Manager configuration, you did a mapping of the obsolete logical components to new logical component groups.

Step 3: Execute report AGS_EJR_SMUD_MIGRATION

Step 4: Execute report RAGS_EJR_MIG_SYSTEM_SCHE_INFO

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For job scheduling I am using a Redwood (CPS) scheduler, but also schedule ABAP jobs directly in the managed systems. How can get an overview on all my ABAP Jobs?

A: We recommend to use the Central Job Overview (CJO) application, that provides you with an overview of the status of the jobs scheduled in your Managed ABAP System as well as those scheduled with the external scheduler SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood (SAP CPS). This is a unified application provides an overview of the scheduled jobs in all the ABAP systems and CPS systems. On how to enable CJO on your Solution Manager, please refer to SCN Job Management --> Configuration Guide for Central Job Overview.

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I use Central Job Overview as kind of cross system SM37, but I am not satisfied with its performance, what can I do? Also, I am not able to see CPS job chain hierarchy for jobs in status scheduled.

A: To see also job chain hierarchy information for scheduled jobs and in order to improve the performance we recommend to fill a buffer table (i.e. SJO_HIERARCHY) with a regular job the executes report SJO_EXT_SDL_BUFFER_FILL for every SAP system that is connected to your Redwood scheduler with following input:

a) specify the relevant system and client

b) Option "Full Load"

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I want to manage all (many) jobs of my ABAP system from Solution Manager, i.e. document and schedule them from Solution Manager. How could I do this?

A: For this you need to create job documentations in Solution Manager and link the jobs. You do not need to stop the jobs and reschedule them, but can do this on demand later. Use report AC_JSM_JOBDOC_MASS_MAINTENANCE as follows.

  1. Get job and scheduling information using report AC_JSM_JOBDOC_MASS_MAINTENANCE.
    1. Download the excel template fill in the job names system and client information
    2. Load the excel and press button “Read from managed system”. This will load the scheduling relevant information (at least most of it).
    3. Download the excel and check, if the scheduling information is complete 
  2. Create job documentation and link the jobs using report AC_JSM_JOBDOC_MASS_MAINTENANCE.
    1. Create a logical component group containing the system
    2. Change the information in the excel, i.e. fill the logical component group name and remove the job run ID values 
    3. Load the excel and press button “Read from managed system” to load the latest run ID values so that the job will be linked to the created documentation.
    4. Press button "Create/Update Job Documentation".

I want to decommission an ABAP system and schedule the same jobs in a new ABAP system. I don’t have an external scheduler. How could I do this?

A: Solution Manager offers report AGS_JSM_MASS_SCHEDULE for mass scheduling of jobs into one system based on their documented schedule. This report is usefully at Go-Live of a project, but could also be used in this context. You could processed as follows:

  1. Make sure to have job documentation with scheduling information for the relevant jobs of the old system. If you do not have such documentation yet, you could use report AC_JSM_JOBDOC_MASS_MAINTENANCE.
    1. Download the excel template fill in the job names system and client information
    2. Load the excel and press button “Read from managed system”. This will load the scheduling relevant information (at least most of it).
    3. Download the excel and check, if the scheduling information is complete and remove the job run ID values from the corresponding column
    4. Create a logical component group containing the new system
    5. Maintain in the excel the logical component group information and replace the old system client with the new system client.
    6. Create the job documentations
  2. Use report AGS_JSM_MASS_SCHEDULE, to schedule the jobs into the new system
    1. enter the job documentation numbers and the new system and client and execute
    2. check in the list the jobs and their schedule
    3. select the lines and press schedule



If you are interested in further reading. The following blogs provide further details about Job Management functionalities within the SAP Solution Manager.

  1. Job Management with SAP Solution Manager
  2. Central Job Scheduling with SAP Solution Manager
  3. Creating a Job Request with SAP Solution Manager
  4. Job Management Enhancements with EhP1/SP18
  5. Managing Standard Jobs centrally from SAP Solution Manager
  6. Monitoring Job Chains with SAP CPS by Redwood and SAP Solution Manager
  7. SAP is first vendor to provide a comprehensive Job Management Suite
  8. Job Interception: Controlling end-user scheduled jobs
  9. Implementation of a naming convention in Job Management
  10. Don't leave children unattended - How SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood manages the parent-child relationship of SAP jobs
  11. How SAP Central Process Scheduling and SAP Financial Closing cockpit work together
  12. Re-directing transactions SM36, SM37, SA38: Controlling end-user scheduled jobs - Part 1
  13. An easy way to identify end-user scheduled jobs which bypass your central scheduling tool
  14. A new column in transaction SM37 - Job Documentation
  15. Re-directing transactions SM36, SM37, SA38: Controlling end-user scheduled jobs - Part 2
  16. Creation of Job Documentation Macros
  17. Job Documentation Templates
  18. Best Practice: BW Process Chain monitoring with SAP Solution Manager - Part 1
  19. Best Practice: BW Process Chain monitoring with SAP Solution Manager 7.0 - Part 2: Setup example
  20. How to configure SAP's standard Job Request form - Part 1
  21. How to configure SAP's standard Job Request form - Part 2
  22. Diagrams for Job Management
  23. The 5 most common customer goals related to Job Management
  24. Do you know how to monitor background job status centrally...without an external scheduling tool?!
  25. SAP Job Management at SAP TechEd 2011
  26. Do you want to know how much backend workload is caused by background jobs?