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Former Member

As you already know, SAP's current job scheduling is more focused on the ABAP stack (the CCMS scheduling transactions SM36 & SM37) with not much support for scheduling cross-component scheduling. With the growing need to have a common and central tool to schedule and monitor jobs of all NetWeaver based SAP applications, SAP has joined hands with Redwood. SAP has an OEM agreement to integrate Redwood's Cronacle under the OEM name of 'Job Scheduling capabilities of SAP NetWeaver'.


Benefits

Here are some of the benefits that customers get with this new scheduling tool.

  • The entire ABAP system landscape can be scheduled with a single scheduler instance
  • Single point of Administration, managing and monitoring for all scheduled processes
  • All ABAP releases >= 3.x can be scheduled from a central place
  • Integration of cross-system automation to reduce the complexity and of operations and control
  • Integrated into CCMS monitoring infrastructure & SAP Solution manager enables easier problem analysis and monitoring, and
  • Available to NetWeaver licensed customers for no additional charge

Availability

The 'Job Scheduling capabilities of SAP NetWeaver' is available as of SAP NetWeaver 2004 SP12. But technically, customers don’t have to be in SP12 to download and use the scheduler. As mentioned above, this is available to NetWeaver licensed customers for no additional charge. But, certain limitations apply on the usage of the free OEM product. Scheduling ABAP programs (SAP-supplied and customer-developed) for the entire landscape is covered under 'free OEM license'. For scheduling OS commands and third-party applications, etc. the customer should get an ‘upsell’ license. The pre-requite for using the scheduler is that the customer must have (i) NetWeaver license, and (ii) Oracle run-time license.


Architecture


The new NetWeaver scheduler Architecture

The main component of the scheduler is comprised of the Job Repository and the Process Server. Currently Oracle database is used as the Job Repository, and the Process Server is a C-based process running on the host. The UI ‘Redwood Explorer’ is a thick client with extensive functionality for both administrators and users. There is also a web browser-based UI available, which can be integrated into the SAP NW Portal as an iView. The Process Server is responsible for all the back-end system connectivity and execution. The XBP and BW-SCH interfaces are used for scheduling programs in ABAP stacks.


Redwood Explorer UI

Future plans

As you might have noticed the scheduler, which is an OEM product from Redwood, doesn’t currently support all databases that the SAP NW App Server would as per the Product Availability Matrix (PAM). This is going to change in the near future.

Currently SAP is currently co-developing with Redwood team, improve and integrate this solution directly into the SAP NetWeaver App Server. You can expect this integration mainly in three areas: (1) Server (2) UI (3) New Interfaces. The Server integration will enable any SAP NetWeaver database to be used as the job repository. The Process Server will be a Java based process running on the application server. Both the job repository and process server will be available as per the PAM. Scheduling Java programs will also be available as part of the OEM license. A new Web Dynpro based UI will be developed and it will be made available as a plug-in for SAP NetWeaver Administrator (NWA). New certifiable interface JXBP will be delivered for scheduling Java programs, which can be used by third-party schedulers and partners similar to the XBP interface.


What next?

If you are a NetWeaver licensed customer, you can download the scheduler from service marketplace and start using it today for free of charge! The download link with a quick install guide and documentation can be found at http://service.sap.com/job-scheduling. For more details about this new scheduler, you can send an email to ccms@sap.com or contact Christoph Nake (christoph.nake@sap.com) or me (venkata.varadadesigan@sap.com).


Please note that the future plans highlighted in this document are subject to change and may be changed by SAP at any time without notice. The document is not intended to be binding upon SAP to any particular course of business, product strategy and/or development.
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