Rajagopalan M

Overview of Operation Mode - SAP

Different work processes exist in an SAP system. These include dialog, background, spool,
enqueue and update work processes. These work processes are of various types, use and differs
in the minimum number that can be defined per dispatcher or in an SAP system.

As regards operation mode, the dialog and background work processes are of high importance.
The dialog work process allows front end interaction with the SAP system while the background
work process is used to handle background jobs.

Every dispatcher requires at least two dialog work processes. At least one background work
process must exist in an SAP system. You can configure more than one background work
process per dispatcher. Depending on the workload and the time, the number of both dialog and
background work processes can be increased to meet the immediate system need.

Usually, at peak periods (may be during the day - DayTime), more users are connected to the
SAP system and less background jobs are active, thus, enough dialog work process must be
available for optimal transaction processing. In same vein, during off peak period (may be during
the night - NightTime), less users are connected but more background jobs are active, hence,
enough background work process must be available.

SAP offers functionality to automatically switch work process distribution especially between
dialog work process and background work process. The essence is to optimize system
performance. By defining operation mode, work process and system resources are better utilized.

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 Rajagopalan M

During peak period (as stated above), more dialog work process will be available for dialog users
and during off peak periods (as stated above), more background work process is available for
background job processing. Using this functionality, work process or system resources are not
wasted and performance is optimized.

At operation mode change, work process is automatically redistributed without shutting down the
instance. Typically, the total number of work process remains the same, only a switch occurs, for
example a work process used for dialog processing is switched for background processing. The
switching of work process may not be instantaneous as new process type is not activated until a
process is free. When work processes are redistributed, the event is recorded in the system log.

The following activities need to be performed when configuring operation modes:

1. Create the operation mode using transaction RZ04

2. Assign instance attributes to an operation mode using transaction RZ04
3. Specify the distribution of dialog and background processes for the operation mode using
transaction RZ04
4. Assign the operation mode through transaction SM63

Source:
http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CDAQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fit.t
oolbox.com%2Fblogs%2Fsap-library%2Foverview-of-operation-mode-
29645&ei=TKc1TJrqGMm7rAfwxpzfAw&usg=AFQjCNHDVqImkrnWXMuuQHfImMDdaAKd9g

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