Spool Load Test

The spool server is an SAP application server that provides spool processing. It therefore requires at least one spool work process. A spool server processes the data for transfer to the spool system of the operating system. You can classify spool servers according to their intended use, such as a spool server for mass printing or for production printing. For an administrator, it is essential to analyze if the requests to the spool servers are processed on time and how well the spool work processes are being used for processing. This will help them analyze the load on the spool server. The Spool Load test helps administrators in this regard!

This test reports the wait time of the spool processes for the frontend output devices and the percentage of spool work processes that were already in use. Using this test, administrators can figure out the load on the spool server and proactively detect shortage of spool work processes on the spool server.

Target of the test : A SAP ABAP System

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each Instance type: Instance name of the target SAP ABAP System being monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter	Description
Test Period	How often should the test be executed
Host	Host name of the server for which the test is to be configured.
Port	Enter the port to which the specified host listens.
Connection Type	Specify how this test should connect to the target SAP ABAP System and collect the required metrics. By default, this flag is set to Application Server indicating that the test uses the IP address of a SAP ABAP Instance connected to the target SAP ABAP System to collect the required metrics. If this flag is set to Logon Group, then, the eG agent automatically connects to the logon group, chooses any one of the available SAP ABAP Instances within the group to connect to the target SAP ABAP System and collects the required metrics.
SID	Specify the three-digit server-specific unique identification code associated with the target SAP ABAP System here. The SID helps in uniquely identifying the target SAP ABAP System.
Application Server	This parameter appears only when the Connection Type flag is set to Application Server. For the eG agent to connect to the target SAP ABAP System and collect metrics, this test should be configured with the IP address of any of the SAP ABAP Instances associated with the target SAP ABAP System. Specify such IP address in this text box.
Message Server	This parameter appears only when the Connection Type flag is set to Logon Group. Specify the IP address of the SAP Message Server to which the target SAP ABAP System is connected to.
Logon Group	This parameter appears only when the Connection Type flag is set to Logon Group. A logon group is a group of servers that belongs to one SAP system. Logon groups are used to automatically distribute user logons to individual instances or to groups of SAP instances (Applications Server). Specify the name of the logon group that should be used by the eG agent to connect to any one of the SAP ABAP Instances within the group and collect the required metrics from the target SAP ABAP System.
ClientName	Specify the ID of the client system as what the eG agent will be connecting to the SAP ABAP instance. To know how to determine the client ID to use, follow the instructions provided in Determining the Client ID/Name for the eG Agent to Connect to the SAP ABAP Instance.
SAPUser	Typically, to connect to a SAP ABAP instance and run tests, the eG agent requires the permissions of a SAP user who has been assigned with certain authorization objects. Ideally, you will have to create a new user role on the SAP ABAP instance for this purpose, associate the above-mentioned authorization objects with that role, and assign the new role to an existing SAP user. The procedure for the same has been provided in Creating a New User Role for Monitoring and Assigning it to a SAP User. Once the new role is assigned to a SAP user, specify the name of this user against SAPUser.
Password	The password of the specified SAPUser.
Confirm Password	Confirm the password by retyping it here.
SysNo	An indicator of the TCP/IP port at which the SAP server listens. For example, for a server that listens at port 3200, the SysNo will be ‘00’. Similarly, if the SAP server port is 3201, the SysNo will have to be specified as ‘01’. Therefore, in the SysNo text box specify the system number of the SAP server with which the specified client communicates. To know the system number for the ABAP server being monitored, follow the procedure detailed in Identifying the SAP Router String and System Number.
Router	If the SAP client with the specified ClientName exists in a network external to the SAP server, then a router will be used to enable the server-client communication. In such a case, specify the router string of the router in the Router text box. If both the client and the server exist in the same network, then specify ‘none’ against the Router text box. To know what is the SAP Router string for the ABAP server being monitored, follow the procedure detailed in Identifying the SAP Router String and System Number.
InstanceName	This is set to none by default. This implies that the eG agent automatically discovers the instance name at run time.
Timeout	Indicate the duration (in seconds) for which this test should wait for a response from the SAP ABAP instance. By default, this is set to 120 seconds.
JCO Version	The eG agent uses the SAP JCO library to connect to the SAP ABAP system and pull out metrics. To enable the eG agent to make this connection and query the metrics, you need to specify the version of the SAP JCO library that the agent needs to use. For instance, to instruct the eG agent to use JCO v2.1.19, it would suffice if you specify the ‘major version number’ alone against JCO Version – in the case of this example, this will be 2.x. Note that if you have downloaded the SAP JCO CONNECTOR files for SAP JCO version 3 from the SAP market place (as instructed by Downloading the SAP JCO Connector files Required for Monitoring ), then the JCO Version configuration should be 3.x.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Frontend wait time	Indicates the wait time of a spool process for frontend output devices.	Milliseconds	This measure is a good indicator of the load on the frontend output devices. A high value for this measure indicates the unavailability or shortage of the frontend output devices.
Spool number usage	Indicates the percentage of spool work processes that were already in use.	Percentage	A high value for this measure indicates shortage of spool work processes. Administrators should therefore delete old requests for the spool work processes periodically.