Spool

Administration

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What is Spool Administration In SAP

It is used to output the document to a printer, fax, email and SMS etc.
It is only the process which is used to display the documents before they get printed.
Once a spool request is generated in the system, It can be printed to any printer with n
no of copies, at any time.
Where as normal printing, the document will not be available once it is printed.
We can change the output format at any time.

work process used for spool administration is 

 
SPOOL 'S' 

 
It is used to print the documents to a printer or output to a fax machine etc. There
should be atleast 1 Spool process in the entire system. It is also possible to configure
more spool process depending on the print/ spool volume

The spool process are configured by parameter ‘RDISP/WP_NO_SPO’

Depending on the resources as many no of spool processes can be configured.

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What is SAP Spool process work flow
Step 1. A dialog user or a background process initializes a print request.

Step 2. The print requests are stored in a location which is determined by a parameter
‘RSPO/Store_location = G’.........(G- Global directory at OS level) or
‘RSPO/Store_location = DB’......(DB- In database tables)

This location is referred as “Temse”( Temporary Sequential File).

‘Temse’ stores spool requests
Temse is stored in Global directory when it is referred as ‘G’. It is stored in database
tables TST01 ; TST03. If it is referred as ‘DB’ .

By default the value is ‘DB’.

G: (Global Directory on Application Server):

1. If G is specified it is stored at OS level

2. The printing will be faster if there are less no of documents. Because from file system
to spooler

The communication faster than database to host spooler

Advantages:

1. No special attention is required to backup the spool requests.

2. RDBMS rules are inherited to spool requests, because they are in the Database

Disadvantages:

1.A dedicated backup has to be planned to save the contents of Global directory.
2. When the records are more the printing consumes more time because of ‘Lack of
indexes’ at file system.

Step 3 Spool process gets initiated and reads the contents from ‘TST01’ name of the
Author, no of copies name of the printer and spool data from ‘TST03’. And converts
spool requests into “Output Requests’ (Printer specific requests). 

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How to configure Frontend printer in SAP ( SPAD )
 Go to transaction SPAD
 click on Display for Output Device (or choose menu Configuration->Output
Devices)

click on the change icon (or type F8)

click on the create icon (or type Shift-F1)

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fill-in fields as needed

In First tab "Device Attributes" 


 Output Device: any name starts with "Z"
 Device Type: SWIN or SAPWIN

In Second tab "Access Method"


 Host Spool Access Method: F: Printing on Front End Computer
 Host printer: __DEFAULT

 Please remember in above step its two times under-scope then DEFAULT
 
 

In the other tabs, please leave the default settings and press save which creates an
output device

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How to setup a Default Printer in SAP ( SU3 )
1. AFTER LOGGING ON TO THE SAP GUI you will be at the SAP Easy Access Menu.
Type in Transaction Code SU3 and hit Enter

2. The following screen will appear and you should click on the Defaults tab. 

3. Click on the right side of the OutputDevice box so the Pick List icon appears. 

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4. When the following box appears, click on the .

5. This will bring up a list of all of your available printers. The standard printer options

highlight the printer you want as your default printer, then click on  

6. Your Maintain User Profile screen should look like this. Make sure to check
the Output Immediately option box. Then click on the Save  icon. 
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 Default Printer setup complete.

Access Methods in SAP Spool Administration

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Types of Printing:-
1)Local Printing 
2)Remote Printing
3)Front end printing

1) Local Printing:-If the spool server and the OS spooler on in the same system it is
called the local printing.
2) Remote Printing:-If the spool server and the OS spooler are in different system
3) Front end Printing:- The printing with the SAP GUI

What is Device Type in Spool / Printing administration of

SAP
A device type in the SAP System is the category of printer to be addressed. When you define an output
device, choose the name of the device type that was defined in the SAP System for your printer model,
such as Post2 for a PostScript printer. The device type is the total of all properties of an output device that
the SAP System requires to control the output device correctly, such as control commands for font
selection, page size, character set selection, and so on.
In most cases, the SAP System already provides the appropriate device type for the printer type for the
printer model that you want to use. For a current list of the supported device types, see SAP Note 8928 in
the SAP Service Marketplace. The attachment for the note contains most device types and can be
downloaded. For information about very specific device types, see the attachments of the relevant SAP
Notes.
Most printers can also be controlled using a generic format, that is, a device-independent format, such as
PostScript. They can be switched to a mode that is compatible with one of the standard printers for which
an SAP device type is available

The SAPWIN data stream is processed in the sapwin.dll component. The sapwin.dll component is also

used by the new front-end printing, as described in SAP Note 821519. SAPWIN processing errors
therefore affect both print methods. Patches for SAPSprint and the new front-end printing are available in
SAP Notes 927074 and 841175 respectively. 

How to Import Device Type (Printer Type) for Spool / Printing administration in SAP
What is Device Type in Spool / Printing administration of SAP
Importing a Device Type with the SPAD Transaction 
1.Download the SAP device type and save the .pri file to a directory on your computer. 

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(You can download .pri file from companies website of your printer)
2.Logon to SAP and select the SPAD transaction. 
3.Select "Utilities" at the top of the screen, select "For device types", and then select "Import"
 

4. When the report appears, select the Device Type radio button.
5. Type in the name of the device type you want to import in the field to the right of object name
 

6. Select the execute button in the upper left corner of the screen (check mark inside the clock). 
7. In next message box Select the "Local Object" button.
8. In next message box Select device type to import in SAP
9. When the import process is complete, a message will appear on screen stating “Object successfully
imported.”

What are Status of Spool Requests in SP01

The lists of spool and output requests (transaction SP01) display, the status of the requests. A
request has a status indicating whether data is stored in the SAP spool system, in the host
spool system (operating system spooler), or at the printer.

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The request can have the following statuses:

Indicator Processing Status

− Spool request has not yet been sent to the host spool system (no output
request exists)
+ Spool request is being generated (stored in the SAP spool system)
Waiting The output request is awaiting processing by the SAP spool system and
has not yet been sent to the host spool system.
Waiting in The output request is to be sent or is being sent to the spool work
host spooler process, or for formatting, in the host spool system.
If this status is displayed for a request for an extended period of time
(more than one minute), the corresponding spool work process may have
terminated, or there may have been a problem establishing a connection
to a remote output device.
The spool work process automatically reprints the output request affected
by the problem.
In Processing The spool work process is formatting the output request for printing.

Print. The request has been passed to the host spooler or to an output device,
(Printing) and a final status has not yet been returned to the SAP spool system.

Compl. The output request has been successfully printed. In systems in which the
(Complete) SAP spool system cannot get information from the host spooler, the
status becomes Complete as soon as the output request has been
passed to the host spooler.
<F5> More than one output request has been generated and the requests have
different statuses. Some requests may not yet have a final processing
status.. To display the status of individual requests, choose 
Output requests or double-click the request status.
Problem There is a minor problem; the output request was printed, but probably
contains errors.
Example: If the printer character set is incomplete, a missing character is
replaced with another (#).
Errors There is a problem with severe consequences. Requests of this type
could not be printed and remain in the spool system until you delete them
or the retention period is exceeded and they are deleted by a
reorganization.
Example: The system cannot find the printer in the network.
Use the error log to determine the cause of the error.
Archive (For spool requests sent to an archiving device.) The spool request has
been processed by the spool system and is waiting to be archived.
Time The user who created the request specified a time when the request is to
or be output.
Scheduled

How to check the spool requests generated in SAP ( SP01 )

spool request can be viewed in SP01 transaction as below :

 

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enter username or spool request number  or you can put * also

 
Click on execute to view the below list of spool requests

Printer (Spool) Troubleshooting in SAP & Common errors

in SAP Spool Administration

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Trouble shooting Printer:

1)Ping the printer

2) Fire the test print from SAP
Lpstart –a
Eg :-lpstart –a zgam

Lpstart –o zgam (Will get the print jobs are accessing)

Hpnadmin (ip address of printer)

Rsp0041:- To delete the old spool requests

Common errors:
If after cleanup and you encounter one of these errors:

A. SPOOL_INTERNAL_ERROR
B. spool overflow (assume you have not adjust max spool number before)
C. ...no more free spool request numbers...

SAP note 48284 mentioned that change:

1. In Client 000, execute transaction SNRO -Number Range button - Interval. Default
numbering range is 100 - 32,000 (which can print up to 31,900 requests)
To do this:
Transaction SNRO > Table SPO_NUM > Number Ranges (button) > Modify > change
the max limit to desired number.

What is spool overflow ( SPAD, RZ20 & SNRO )

2. Define profile parameter rspo/spool_id/max_number up to 2^31

3. Define rspo/spool_id/loopbreak to same value as above. This is optional.

We don't see a need to have more than 31,900. Well if this happens, do the things
above.

Indirectly, database table size going to grow to few GB, and indirectly slowing down all
print request, as well as unnecessary database size

What is spool overflow ( SPAD, RZ20 & SNRO )

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Spool request that got generated are stored in a temporary sequential file called Temse.
The default size of Temse is 32,000 and it can be increased till 2 billion. However, defining very
high value can effect the database performance. Due to limited storage capacity of Temse,
when this file got full, this throws an SAP spool overflow error.

If this happens, customers could not print from SAP. you may encounter some error log or
dumps like

 ERROR IN SPOOL call : SPOOL OVERFLOW

 SPOOL_INTERNAL_ERROR
 System internal error in the spool system
How to troubleshoot spool overflow ?

To resolve this spool issue, some of the old spools can be deleted from the sap system. 
Goto transaction SPAD. 
From the initial screen, navigate to Administration -> Clean_up_spool
 Once you click this, Spool Administration : Delete old spool requests screen will be displayed.
In that screen, you will be prompted to choose requests for deletion like

 Old spool requests older than the maximum set age

 Requests already printed
 All spool requests
and enter value for minimum age (in days) text box.

 Once you click this, Spool Administration : Delete old spool requests screen will be displayed.
In that screen, you will be prompted to choose requests for deletion like

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 Old spool requests older than the maximum set age
 Requests already printed
 All spool requests
and enter value for minimum age (in days) text box.

Select the check boxes as per the requirement (eg:  delete all requests already printed and
minimum age in days equal to 30 days) and execute to delete old spool requests, which will
clear Temse and will resolve spool over flow issue.
How to avoid spool overflow issue ?

 These reports RSPO0041 and RSPO0043 should be scheduled as background jobs with
proper variants on a periodic basis which avoids spool overflow issue.

 You can try to increase the spool numbers from default 32000 to a bit higher value but
please note donot set this too high as it may impact database performance

 Proactive monitoring check can be made in RZ20 transaction to see how much is the fill
level of spool numbers.

          How to check spool numbers ?

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          To check spool numbers : Goto RZ20 transaction, navigate to SAP CCMS Monitor
Templates -> Spool System.

Here you can check the status of spool servers and the used numbers percentage of spool
numbers. If you find that used numbers is greater than 80%, you can manually run above
mentioned reports or delete old spool requests from SPAD tcode as mentioned earlier.

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How to set the spool number in SAP ?

Using Transaction SNRO (Number range object maintenance) and object SPO_NUM, you can
set the spool number in an SAP system.

Once you provide object as SPO_NUM, click on change icon. It displays another screen. In that
screen, click on Number Ranges push button. It displays another screen "Number range for
spooler numbers". Click on change icon here and set the value of spooler(from number and to
number). Please note that a change request may be generated here based on the client
settings(if automatic recording of changes is set in SCC4 transaction of the client)

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