Work Process Overview Fields

The description of the fields of the local work process overview

Field	Explanation
No.	Work process number (unique for each SAP instance). This number and the SAP instance name (or the computer name and the process I D) uniquely identify an SAP work process in an SAP system.
TYPE	Dialog, BTC: background, UPD: update, ENQ:enqueue, SPO: Spool.
PID	Process ID for the operating system (unique for each computer). Using this number, you can deal with the process using operating system commands (for example, TERMINATED).
STATUS	This field displays the status of a work process. The status WAITING shows that the process is available for user requests. Normally, there should always be sufficient work processes displaying this status; otherwise, users will experience poor response times.The status RUNNING means the work process is processirng a user request. To determine which action the work process is currently executing, check the ACTION/REASON FOR WAITING field (see below). The status ENDED means the process was terminated because of an error in the SAP kernel. The status STOPPED means the process is waiting for a message.
REASON	For work processes with t he status STOPPED, t his field explains the reason for the wait time. You can find an overview of t he most important reasons for waiting and their causes in the online appendix.
START	This column tells you whether, for a given work process, the dispatcher is set to restart the work process if it terminates.
ERR	Number of times the work process has been terminated.
SEM	Number of the semaphore. A number with a green background shows that this work process is holding a semaphore. A number with a red background shows that the work process is waiting for the semaphore.
CPU	The CPU time used by the work process so far, in minutes:seconds.
TIME	The elapsed processing time for the current request (in seconds).
CLIE	Client.
USER	Name of the user whose request is currently being executed .
REPORT	Name of the report currently being executed.
ACTION/ REASON FOR WAITING	For work processes with the status RUNNING, this field displays the current action.
TABLE	The database table that was last accessed by the work process.

Process ID

The combination of computer and process ID enables you to clearly identify an SAP work process in an SAP system. The process ID is also used in the following monitors:

->In the process overview of the operating system monitor (Transaction ST06):
SNAPSHOT • TOP CPU PROCESSES
This monitor enables you to determine how much CPU load a specific work process is currently generating.

->In the database process monitor (Transaction DBACOCKPIT):

PERFORMANCE • APPLICATIONS (as an example for DB2)

This moni tor enables you to determine which SQL statement is currently being processed by a work process.

->In the database lock monitor (Transaction DBACOCKPIT):
PERFORMANCE • WAIT SITUATIONS FOR LOCKS
This monitor enables you to determine whether a work process is currently holding a database lock or waiting for a lock to be released.

-> In the SAP Management Console: J2EE PROCESSES
-> In the TREX server overview (Transaction TREXADMIN): SERVICES

Main memory requirement

To determine the current main memory requirement, open the detailed view for the work process by double-clicking the relevant row in the work process overview.

semaphores

Every application server has resources that can be used by only one work semaphores process at a time. If a work process needs to use these resources, it sets a semaphore. If other processes also require this resource, they have to wait until the process that is holding the semaphore has completed its action. For example, if an entry in an SAP buffer needs to be changed, a semaphore is set because only one process can perform changes in the buffer. If several processes are waiting for a semaphore, this is called serialization. Another operation that requires a semaphore to be set is the roll-in or roll-out. This means that only one process at a time can perform a roll-in or roll-out. You can obtain a complete list of SAP semaphores by pressing (ill for help on the SEM field.