Why background processing exists, defining jobs and variants, monitoring, and why a completed job is not necessarily a successful one.
Contents
Background jobs run without interactive input: overnight batches, scheduled interfaces, long aggregations.
Why they are needed
Dialog processing has a runtime limit
Heavy processing is better run outside business hours
Recurring work runs unattended
Execution history and logs are retained
Defining a job
Job components
Element
Content
Job name
The identifier; adopt a naming convention
Job class
A, B or C — priority
Steps
Programs or external commands to run
Variant
Selection values passed to the program
Start condition
When it runs
Target server
Which instance executes it
Start conditions
Condition
Behaviour
Use
Date and time
At a scheduled moment
Nightly routines
Immediate
Right away
Ad hoc long processing
After job
When a predecessor finishes
Enforcing sequence
Event
When an event is raised
Triggered externally
Operation mode
On a mode switch
Tied to operating windows
Variants
Monitoring
Job statuses
Status
Meaning
Scheduled
Defined but with no start condition
Released
Ready to run
Ready
About to start
Active
Running
Finished
Completed normally
Cancelled
Terminated; check the log
When a job does not run
Cause
How to check
No free background processes
SM50 for BTC availability
Job not released
SM37 status
Insufficient authorisation
The job log in SM37
The run user is locked
SU01
Target server down
SM51
Operation mode gives no BTC processes
RZ04
Check your understanding
Test what you just read.
Quiz 1
Which transaction code is used to define (schedule) background jobs?
Quiz 2
Which transaction code is used to monitor and manage background jobs?
Quiz 3
What is the status when a background job terminates abnormally?
Quiz 4
Background jobs can be configured to start after another job completes.
Quiz 5
Which job class has the highest priority?
Quiz 6
A Periodic Job is automatically deleted after running once.
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