Closing Cockpit

Use
The Closing Cockpit enables you to create a structured interface for executing transactions and programs that form part of complex processes, such as closing processes. The structural layout supports processes within an organizational structure, such as within the company code, as well as scenarios affecting multiple organizational structures. The Closing Cockpit can be used as a tool in the following cases, in particular: Activities recur periodically. More than one person responsible is involved. The activities are performed within a process that has a fixed chronological sequence or is determined by dependencies. The activities need to be supported by a shared, uniform interface for all involved.

The status of all periodic activities needs to be documented and made transparent and available for all involved. The Closing Cockpit enables you to optimize your process flows by using its event-driven organization of activities, its overview and monitoring options, as well as its analysis tools, all of which cover the entire process.

Integration
You can comfortably accomplish all of the closing tasks within a single ERP system. If you nevertheless want to run the tasks of Closing Cockpit in multiple systems, you also can connect the SAP Central Process Scheduling application by Redwood to the Closing Cockpit application. This enables you to centrally execute and control the closing process in a distributed system landscape. Closing Cockpit contains the connectivity options required for this.

This is an additional function that is only available when you have implemented SAP Central Process Scheduling (CPS). SAP CPS is not a part of SAP ERP. However, Closing Cockpit provides a connection to SAP CPS. For more information about the use, availability, and features of SAP CPS, go to SAP Service Marketplace and see the Master Guide for SAP enhancement package 3 for SAP ERP 6.0, or go to the Internet addresshttp://service.sap.com/processscheduling. Processing of task lists in Closing Cockpit is not only available in ABAP environments, but also as a Web application in SAP NetWeaver Portalor SAP NetWeaver Business Client. For more information about the Web application of Closing Cockpit, see the documentation for the Business Package for Closing Cockpit 1.30.

Prerequisites
You have performed the required steps for configuring the Closing Cockpit. If you want to manage and process your task lists using the Web application, you have made the related settings for the Business Package for Closing Cockpit 1.30.

Features
To support the closing process, the Closing Cockpit offers the following structural objects: Hierarchies to display the organizational objects involved in the closing process

A task list template based on the organizational structure A detail view of the characteristic values of the individual hierarchy levels used in the task list template. Task lists that are derived from the task list template A list display in which all tasks to be managed or executed from the respective task list are made available for processing or for monitoring task progress A monitor that shows a graphical representation of the critical paths as well as the processing periods and processing sequence with their respective dependencies. This function is also available in a Gantt diagram in the Web application. Detailed information about the technical settings of tasks as well as for analyzing background programs (spool, job log information) Dependencies for displaying the conditions representing a prerequisite for processing the individual tasks

Connection options to SAP Central Process Scheduling, provided this has been implemented. See the note in the Integration section. Alternatively, you can launch Closing Cockpit within a Web application. If you do this, you can perform the following activities in the ABAP environment or in the Web application: You can use the transaction Closing Cockpit (Manage Templates and Task Lists) (CLOCOC) to create the task list templates and task lists, and to release the task lists. You can use either the classic Closing Cockpit (CLOCO) transaction or the Closing Cockpit Web application to edit and execute the task lists.

output Devices in the SAP Spool System

Definition
A target device must be specified for the output for every document to be printed in the SAP system. As the document can be output using not only printers, but also archiving devices, these devices are called Output Devices in the SAP system. In the SAP system, output devices are the logical representations of the real output devices.

Use
You must create a device definition in the SAP system for every output device. This definition contains all the important data for addressing the device; otherwise the device cannot be correctly addressed. This data includes, for example: Device type, such as POSTSCPT or HPLJ4 Name of the spool server (= application server with a spool work process) Host spool access method (such as local or remote) Destination host (for remote access methods) For information about the device definition in general and the various types of output devices, see the following sections: Defining Output Devices for Microsoft Windows Printing

Defining Output Devices for UNIX Printing Defining an Output Device for Frontend Printing (SAP GUI for Windows) Defining an Output Device for Frontend Printing (SAP GUI for HTML) Defining Output Devices for Printing Using E-Mail Defining Logical Output Devices Printer Pools

Monitoring the Spool System

Use
You can monitor the performance of your SAP spool system in the context of the SAP monitoring architecture. The Spool Monitor provides you with a tool with which you can obtain an overview of the system status quickly and can react to alert messages. The monitoring architecture of the SAP system provides you with various options for monitoring your system and analyzing any errors.

Activities
Start the Spool Monitor by calling transaction RZ20 (or CCMS Control/Monitoring Alert Monitor). ON the CCMS Monitor Sets screen, expand the SAP CCMS Monitor Templates monitor set, and start the Spool System monitor by double clicking it. The system displays a monitoring tree you can expand to display the information you require. You can use this monitor template as is, or you can copy it into your own monitor set and modify it.

Features
The spool monitoring tree consists of the subtrees System Wide and Spool Servers. The table below explains the individual components (Monitoring Tree Elements,MTEs) of the subtrees. Threshold values are set for the individual attributes. Each attribute has a color indicating whether the current attribute value falls below or exceeds the threshold value. For information about the meaning of the colors and symbols, see Extras Legend. The tree can display the attributes at several visibility levels. You can select the view level by choosing Extras Display Options and then Tree Displ.

System Wide Subtree

The current level of use of the number set for spool numbers, and the wait times and status attributes for the individual spool services of the system are displayed in the System Wide subtree.

The following table provides information about the monitoring tree elements (MTEs) of this subtree: MTE SpoolNumbers UsedNumbers Status WaitTime Description Spool numbers that every output request is assigned Percentage usage of the spool numbers; you must delete old output requests before this number reaches 100 percent Is only displayed if the spool service belongs to an SAP application server Wait time in the spool service in seconds

Spool Servers Subtree

Spool monitoring objects are displayed in the Spool Servers subtree, broken down by application server. Subtrees are only created for the servers with at least one spool work process.

Entries in the Spool Category in the System Log (R3Syslog)

Messages in the spool category of the system log are displayed in the R3Syslog log attribute; you can set the category in which a message is reported, the message text, and the severity and criticality of the alert using the message ID in transaction SE92.

SpoolService
The SpoolService monitoring object contains the most important attributes about the spool system, its utilization, and the length of the wait queues. It includes the following MTEs: MTE Utilization Description Utilization of the spool work processes as a percentage Number of spool work processes You set the number of these work processes using the system parameter rdisp/wp_no_spo (For recommendations, see SAP Note 108799). Notes

NumberOfWpSPO

QueueLength

Used area of the dispatcher queue as a percentage Used area of the spool request queue as a percentage Used area of the spool request queue for processing in chronological order as a percentage Number of pages in the spool request queue Used area of the entire device cache as a percentage Used area of the fixed device cache as a percentage

Output requests are buffered in the dispatcher queue on the spool server until a free work process accepts them. The spool request queue takes output requests from the dispatcher queue when a free work process in the spool server accepts the output request. If a spool server has several spool work processes, output requests can overtake each other. To retain the sequence of the requests, there are special work process-specific output queues, each with requests for a specific output device.

ServiceQueue

ServiceQueuePriv

ServiceQueuePages

DeviceCacheUsed

The device cache contains device definitions and server assignments for all work processes. Entries are taken into the cache as required and can be removed again if the cache becomes full. This area contains information about the output devices for which there are requests in the host spool system that have not yet been reported as finished. The cache must therefore contain at least as many entries as the maximum number of devices that can be concurrently used. The host spool request list limits the number of requests in the host spool that can be managed with the spool service. To minimize database accesses, the list must be stored in shared memory. It deals with status queries for the current requests.

DeviceCacheFixed

HostspoolListUsed

Used area of the spool request queue as a percentage

For more information about this topic, see the SAP Service Marketplace under SAP Note 118057 (Flexible Configuration of the Spool-Service).

Processing Groups
For classification of the output requests, we recommend that you assign both the output servers and the output devices to different classes. By having different spool servers that process different types (and priorities) of requests, you can avoid, or at least control, mutual obstruction of output requests. The Processing Groups node contains the possible processing groups: MTE ProcessingGroup Adm Description Spool administration tasks Notes Examples: ProcessingGroup Reg Normal requests Activation of delayed requests Deletion of obsolete requests Rerouting of requests in the case of server failure

Normal requests are requests to devices that are assigned to a spool server

ProcessingGroup Fro

Requests for front end output devices

Front end output devices are defined by the user at operating system level. In the SAP system, there must only be one output device with the access method F (Front end) that sends output to the users default printer. Mass printing means very large requests. Assign these requests to a separate spool server, to avoid obstruction of other output requests. You should assign the output requests that are required for trouble-free production operation (such as receipts) to production printing. We recommend that you connect output devices for this processing group locally. You should assign printers at your workplace to the desktop printing processing group. As they are often not available, they could obstruct other tasks. We recommend that you do not use this processing group for output requests that are important for the routine operation of your company. You should assign output devices that are used to test new device types or configurations to the test printing group.

ProcessingGroup Vol

Requests classified as mass printing

ProcessingGroup Pro

Requests classified as production printing

ProcessingGroup Dsk

Requests classified as desktop printing

ProcessingGroup Tst

Requests classified as test printing

Each of the various processing groups contains the following MTEs: MTE GroupWPs GroupJobs GroupPages GroupMinWPs GroupMaxWPs Description Number of work processes Number of requests Number of pages Reservation of work processes Restriction of the number of work processes

When reserving work processes (GroupMinWPs), note that these then remain unused even in a situation where there are no requests for this group, the other work processes are all occupied, and requests for other groups are waiting for processing. In the same way, restricting the maximum number of work processes (GroupMaxWPs) means that even if there are more requests waiting to be processed in this group, and other work processes are free, the number of work processes for this group cannot be increased.

Output Devices (Devices)

You can also monitor particular output devices that are especially important for the trouble-free production operation of your system using the monitoring architecture. You can do this in Spool Administration (transaction SPAD), by choosing the Output Attributes tab page for an output devices and selecting the Monitor using the monitoring architecture indicator (see also Output Devices in the SAP Spool System). If you have activated this monitoring for at least one output device, there are monitoring objects in the Devices subtree with the short name of the output device and the following MTEs: MTE Description

LPQ_Time Pages/Min Message

Time that the output request spends in the wait queue of the output device Print speed in pages per minute Status attribute that contains possible errors from the transfer of the output request to the host spool system

For more detailed information about this topic, see the documentation for the Alert Monitor. See also: Analyzing SAP Printing Problems SAP Printing Guide Start Page