04. Background Job Steps

Background Job Steps

Once the general job definition fields are entered, you have to click on the Steps function button to define which are the programs that will be executed as part of the job. These types are :

01. ABAP program

With this option, you can specify the execution of ABAP reports as steps of a background job. Module pools or functions groups are not allowed for definition as steps.

Any ABAP program that generates a list can be used as a job step. If the program includes a selection screen, you must create a variant before you can let it run in the background. A variant is the result of assigning definite values in the fields that appear in the ABAP program selection screen. The list is stored in the R/3 spool system. When you define the step, you can set the print parameters (for example, output device) and a spool list recipient (this is a SAPoffice addressee).

02. External command

These are predefined commands that should have been previously defined by the system administrator. Normal users with the required authorization can schedule these job steps. Since this is a way of executing programs or commands outside R/3, for security reasons users have to specify the operating system type and cannot change the predefined arguments.

An external command is any non-R/3 program, script, or command that is executed at operating system level. Since these commands are defined in R/3 by the system administrator, the administrators use R/3 authorizations to limit the scope of the commands and their availability to R/3 users.

03. External program

An external program is also any non-R/3 program, script, or command that is executed at operating system level. The system administrator has not previously defined these programs in R/3 and no check is made for critical or dangerous programs.

These programs are unrestricted operating system programs or shell scripts that require batch administrator privileges. There is no need to define these commands using transaction SM69. The requirement is that the computer must be reached from within the SAP server and have remote shell support, a running SAP gateway, or a SAP instance that is on the reach of a SAP gateway.

In the latter 2 cases, the programs are called up at the operating system level by program sapxpg. The programs are processed

Synchronously (job waits for termination of the external program) or

Asynchronously (next job step is processed immediately).

The output (stdout and/or stderr) of the external program can be taken up in the job log.