Job Management

Purpose

This page provides a comprehensive overview on Job Management with all related aspects, such as Business Background, Goal, Concept, Implementation, related Information.

Business Background

In order to seamlessly execute business processes, in which different SAP and non-SAP systems are involved, scheduling of background jobs should be managed by a central, solution wide tool.

Job Management comprises several applications to establish standardized, formal processes in order to support the management of centralized end-to-end solution wide background operations, i.e.

Processes for requesting new jobs, job changes or deletion of jobs
Documentation and central scheduling of jobs
Central monitoring of jobs and error handling in case of failures

Job Management is one of the elements of the Run SAP like a Factory - concept. By providing centralized Job Management capabilities, it supports central Job Operations and Monitoring activities. In case an Operations Control Center is available or to be set up, monitoring and error handling procedures can be ideally taken over by a central monitoring team.

Job Management is also documented as E2E Solution Operations standard provided by SAP.

Goal

Provide an efficient and consistent Job Management Process:

Manage batch processing efficiently by having a central and living Job Documentation implemented
(see here for ABAP job, BW Process Chain or externally scheduled job)
Manage changes to batch processing by integrating with Solution Manager Incident Management and optionally with ChaRM or via BAdI with any ticketing tool.
Have a centralized batch job scheduling concept in place
Have a centralized batch job monitoring concept for ABAP, SBOP/BOBJ, DS, SMSE Jobs and BW Process Chains in place using the Monitoring and Alerting Infrastructure of SAP Solution Manager

Concept

Two main Job Management options are available:

Jobs are managed by Solution Manager only

Job scheduling information is handed over from Solution Manager directly via interface to the managed SAP Systems scheduler. Job execution is triggered by the managed SAP Systems scheduler. This option is valid for jobs of type SAP ABAP, and partially valid for SAP BW process chains (scheduling is technically possible, Job docu is not completely adapted to SAP BW chain structure, see this FAQ entry).

Jobs are managed by Solution Manager and SAP CPS / SAP BPA , or any SMSE (Solution Manager Scheduling Enabler) certified external job scheduler.

Job scheduling information is handed over from Solution Manager via SMSE interface. Job execution is triggered by the scheduler into the managed System via the respective interface.
This option allows to schedule any job type supported by SAP BPA / SAP CPS.

SAP External Scheduler: SAP BPA and SAP CPS

The SAP external scheduler is actually a https://www.redwood.com/ product and comes in two versions:

SAP Business Process Automation by Redwood (SAP BPA) is a chargeable version. You can download it from the Service Marketplace. An overview on new features can be found in SAP Note 2005087.
SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood (SAP CPS) is a free (OEM) version, being part of the SAP NW Java Stack.
According to Product Availability Matrix (PAM), SAP CPS (-> scheduler version 8) has reached 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 by Redwood allows to schedule jobs / job chains of type SAP ABAP, SBOP, DS, BW process chains, ISU mass activities, Java MDB, OS level on many platforms (all SAP supported operating systems), non-SAP systems. See a complete list in SAP BPA administration guide.

For SAP CPS limitations apply. See Overview SAP BPA / SAP CPS, and the FAQ entry What is the difference between Chargeable and OEM Version of SAP BPA and SAP CPS?

Update (May 10, 2019)
SAP is not selling SAP CPS / SAP BPA to net new customers anymore. But you can contact Redwood (https://www.redwood.com/contact-us) to request an offering for SAP BPA by Redwood (Redwood sells this scheduler under the name of RunMyJobs (formerly Cronacle). SAP continues to provide regular support to SAP customers for SAP CPS / SAP BPA.

Existing customers might be still entitled depending from their existing license contract, in this case the SAP account contact should be involved.

New with Solution Manager 7.2

With Solution Manager 7.2, new features were made available, mainly

Integration with Solution Documentation (limitations apply)
Integration of the Job Request process with any ticketing tool (not only ITSM)
Enhanced scheduling support (improved Gantt Chart, Scheduling Assistant)
Job Monitoring framework opened up via BAdI for new job types (e.g. cloud ABAP jobs, but also customer specifics)
Starting with support package 9, Jobs of type ABAP scheduled via Redwood will always be monitored via RFC on the ABAP managed System.

Implementation of Job Management

Job Management is technically implemented through a Guided Procedure in Solution Manager configuration.

For Solution Manager 7.2 starting with SP08, under 'Detailed Documenation' find a
Configuration Guide addressing all relevant configuration and enhancement topics based on BAdI technique, and a
User & Enhancement Guide for Mass Maintenance to manage mass maintenance of job documentations.

As the implementation has numerous integration aspects with various business and IT areas, we recommend following a project approach. For Premium Engagements, we offer advanced guidance via Service 'Configuration for SAP Operations Control Center - 9504470'.
Please contact your TQM / EA regarding an offering.

See further information in Support Portal - Solution Manager Processes - Business Process Operations .

Contact information

For further questions, or any other information regarding Job Management, please send an email to jobmanagement@sap.com.

Related Information

Please find related information in the Media Library right hand side of this page. Frequently asked questions for Job Management are answered in page FAQ: Job Management in SCN Wiki.

Related SAP Notes/KBAs

SAP Note 1729766: CPS - Solution Manager Integration Setup
SAP Note 1161405: Accumulative Note for "SAP CPS for SAP Netweaver"
SAP Note 2146911: SAP Business Process Automation 9.0 by Redwood: Supported Platforms
SAP Note 2502427: SMSE/BAE setup in SAP BPA 9.0
SAP Note 521820: Availability of Business Process Monitoring