What is the Work Process?
Work processes I are important components of the SAP ABAP application server that are used to execute the individual dialog steps of ABAP application programs.
Structure of SAP Work Process
A work process consists of the following components:
- Screen processor: The screen processor executes the screen flow logic.
- ABAP interpreter: The ABAP processor executes the processing logic of the application program, and also communicates with the database interface.
- Database interface: Access to database tables
- Task Handler: calls these programs
Types of Work Processes in SAP?
To process SAP requests from multiple front ends SAP application server is used. The application server has the use of a dispatcher, which collects the requests and passes them for processing to the work processes. Then the work processes execute the desired requests (for example, an ABAP program). A work process holds the ABAP interpreter, the database interface, the task handler, and a screen processor that calls programs.
The following are the types of Work Processes:
| Work Process Type Name | Use and Description |
| Dialog | To Fulfill all requests for execution of dialog steps triggered by an active user or execute dialog programs. |
| Background | It executes those programs that run without user interaction or executes time-dependent or event-controlled background jobs. |
| Update | It executes Update Requests or Asynchronous database changes that are controlled by a COMMIT WORK statement in a dialog work process. |
| Spool | It pass sequential data flows onto Printers or Print Formatting to printer, file or database. |
| Enqueue | Administers the lock table in shared memory or If SAP transactions have to synchronize themselves it executes locking operations. |
Dialog Work Process in SAP
The Dialog work process fulfills all requests for the execution of dialog steps triggered by an active user. The dialog work process is not used for requests that take a long time and which use more CPU. Every dispatcher requires at least two dialog work processes. The dialog work process default time is 300 seconds. If the dialog work process does not respond at this time, it will be terminated. Also, dialog work processes are multiplexed to handle large no of user requests. Learn more about multiplexing here. You can set the maximum response time of the dialog work process from transaction rz11 & set the parameter rdisp/max_wprun_time to the time you need. The no of dialog work process can be changed by changing the parameter rdisp/wp_no_dia.
Background Work Process in SAP
The background work processes execute programs that run without user interaction. At least two background work processes are required per SAP system. More than one background work process can be configured per dispatcher. Usually, the background work process is used for carrying jobs that take a long time to finish, like client copy, client transport, etc.., Then a number of the background work process can be changed by changing the parameter rdisp/wp_no_btc . There are two types of background work processes. They are A type and B type. A type of background work process is used for mission-critical jobs. Background jobs of priority have higher priority than B-type background jobs.
Update Work Process
Update work processes execute update requests. You need at least one update work process per SAP system and you can have more than one per dispatcher. The profile parameter rdisp/wp_no_vb is used to control the no of update work process and rdisp/wp_no_vb2 for not of update work process of type v2. There are two types of update work process. They are v1 and v2. v1 update jobs have higher priority than v2 jobs. v1 jobs are used for critical jobs. There must be at least one V1 update work process in the SAP System. However, there can be more than one.V2 modules describe less critical secondary changes. These are pure statistical updates, for example, such as result calculations.
Spool Work Process in SAP
The Spool work process passes sequential data flows onto printers. Every SAP system requires at least one Spool work process. However, there can be more than one per dispatcher. The parameter to set the no of the spool work process is rdisp/wp_no_spo.
Enqueue Work Process in SAP
The Enqueue work process administers the lock table in the shared memory. The lock table contains the logical database locks of the ABAP stack. Only one enqueue work process is needed for each SAP system. This is present on the central instance. You can determine or find an central instance by looking the various work processes present in it. For example, only the central instance contains enqueue and message work process. rdisp/wp_no_enq. It is not dynamically switchable.
You can see an overview of all work processes in the application server by calling Transaction sm50.
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