• SAP background processing is a method for automating routine tasks and for optimizing the use of your organizations SAP computing resources. In background
processing, you instruct the R/3 System to run programs for you. You can use background processing to execute long-running or resource intensive programs
at off peak times. You can use it to assign the system the task to execute reports and programs. There is no strain on your dialog resources and reports running in the background are not subject to the runtime restrictions of dialog processing (termination of the program after a runtime of ten minutes).
• The segregation of background processing to special work processes gives you an additional dimension for separating background processing and interactive work. Normally, background processing and interactive work in the system take place at different times. For example, the system is used interactively during the day and background processing takes place at night. You can use background work processes to separate background processing and interactive work also by servers because background jobs are only executed on servers that offer background processing.
• The end user can usually schedule the program to be started in the background as a job from the application transaction. The job then waits for the planned execution time in the job scheduling table. If the time has come and free background work processes are available, the job is distributed to a background work process by the background scheduler and then executed.
Additional note:
• To display your own jobs, use transaction code SMX.
• The system administration and the work preparation have access to a tool for scheduling different types of background takes with transaction SM36. The system-wide monitoring of
jobs takes place with transaction SM37.
• For cross-system scheduling and monitoring of background tasks, you can use SAP Central Process Scheduling (SAP CPS) and other licensed partner products.
