Exploring SAP Spool System

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
  • Illustrate the information flow from the print document to printout
  • Explain central terms in SAP Printing and explain their meaning

The Printing Process

There are various document classes in the SAP system (such as report lists and SAPscript or SAP Smart Forms documents). Although the way documents are created may be completely different, the output on paper is always performed using a common mechanism. The SAP spool system creates a spool request and an output request.

  • The spool request contains device-independent print data, such as administrative information (author, date, number of copies), and the actual print data.

  • The output request is created only when the document is sent to a particular output device. In the output request, the device-independent print data from the spool request is converted to the printer language that the selected output device understands.

As the figure Data Flow During Printing shows, when the user releases a document for printing, a spool request is first created. Once the document is sent to the output device, an output request is generated. This procedure allows the user to display a spool request before output. One spool request can have several output requests. This can prevent the user from recreating (possibly with a great deal of effort) a spool request, if, for example, the toner in a printer is exhausted or there was the wrong paper in the tray. The user can also create a spool request and an output request at the same time by choosing the Print immediately option.

Hint

By choosing the options for spool control on the Defaults tab in transaction SU3, end users can choose to print their spool requests immediately by default.

Note

The print data of a spool request is stored in TemSe (a store for temporary sequential objects). You can define whether the objects are to be stored by TemSe in the SAP database or in the file system by setting the profile parameter rspo/store_location.

TemSe is an abbreviation for Temporary Sequential database; a file that temporarily stores data from spool requests and job logs from background processing, among other information.

Caution

Do not mix the terms Printing (explained in the figure and the text above) and Output Control:

SAP S/4HANA introduces a new style of output management. The new output management is going to be the successor of all other output management frameworks (SD Output Control, FI Correspondence, FI-CA Print Workbench, CRM Post-Processing). The output management for SAP S/4HANA comprises all functionalities and processes that are related to the output of documents. Among others, this includes the integration of output management functions into the business applications as well as the technical infrastructure.

For more information, see the online documentation for SAP S/4HANA (Product Assistance), area Cross Components → SAP S/4HANA Output Control and

Basic Terms in SAP Printing

The configuration of the SAP spool system is a system administration task. You must create a device definition in the SAP system for every output device on which you want to print a document, so that the SAP system recognizes this device. This is done in transaction SPAD.

The device definition contains all of the important data for addressing the device. When creating a new output device, (among others) you need to provide the following information:

  • The output device is the name of the printer in the SAP system. It can be up to 30 characters long, and is case-sensitive.

  • Creating an output request prompts the SAP spool system to send a (usually) printer-dependent, completely formatted data stream to a printer through an operating system spooler (OS spool). This means that the addressed printer model must be known by the SAP system. These definitions of printer models in the SAP system are called device types.

    Note

    The device type SWIN transfers the spool data from the SAP system to the Microsoft Windows printer driver. This is useful, for example, when different printers are used for front-end printing in a Microsoft Windows environment.
  • A spool server denotes an SAP application server with spool work processes or a logical server that is to prepare the output for this device.

  • To be able to administer the printer from within the SAP system, it must be known at the operating system level. A spool work process can reach an operating system spooler in several ways using different host spool access methods. The access method is identified by a letter and informs the system which architecture is in use (local printing / remote printing, with / without SAPSprint service program, ...) and which operating system you are using.

  • The host printer is the name of the printer at the operating system level (in the host system).

    Note

    The name of the host printer is case-sensitive. Under Microsoft Windows, there should be no blank in the host printer name, and network printers are addressed using their UNC names (in the format \\R12345\P42).
  • The destination host is used only for remote printing and is the name of the host on which the OS spooler is running and which receives the data for output. For local printing, the field for the destination host is replaced by the field host name, which is filled automatically when you specify the spool server.

Check the Print Environment

Business Example

As a system administrator, you want to check the print environment in your SAP system.

Note

In this exercise, when an object name or value contains ##, replace ## with the number your instructor has assigned to you.

Task 1: Checking the SAP System

Check the printing environment in your assigned SAP system.

Steps

  1. How many spool servers are available in your SAP system?

    1. Log on to your training system with the credentials that are provided by your instructor.

    2. A (real) spool server is an application server instance with at least one spool work process. You can display this information with transaction SM51.

      Spool servers are all application servers that provide the Spool service (see the Instance Services column).

  2. Check in the work process overview, how many spool work processes are set up for the application server to which you are currently logged on?

    1. Following the previous step, start transaction SM50.

    2. Count the number of spool work processes displayed (work processes of type SPO) – or check the (total) number for Spool in the section above the work process list.

  3. How many spool work processes are configured in your entire SAP system?

    1. In transaction SM50, choose System-Wide List to display all spool work processes configured in the SAP system.

    2. Count the number of spool work processes displayed (work processes of type SPO).

      Note

      The number of spool work processes cannot be changed with the help of operation modes.

  4. Configure the settings of your TRAIN-## user, so that a spool request does not result in the immediate creation of an output request.

    1. Following the previous step, in the menu bar, choose System → User Profile → User Data (this enters transaction SU3).

    2. Switch to the Defaults tab.

    3. Ensure that Print Now is not checked.

    4. Save your changes.

      Hint

      This default setting can be overridden in the print dialog at any time.

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