SM50 - Process Overview

Transaction code SM50 is used to monitor and manage work processes. In the work process overview, you can:

• End an ABAP program that is running.
• Debug an ABAP program that is running.
• Cancel a process (with or without core) – long running jobs
• End a session
• Activate/deactivate the restart option after an error
• Execute various functions for the process trace

No.

The internal ID number of a process. Used to identify messages that belong to a work process in the system log.

Type

• DIA: Work process for executing dialog steps in user transactions.
• UPD: Update process for making U1 (time-critical) database changes.
• UP2: Update process for executing U2 (not time-critical) database changes.
• ENQ: For locking or releasing SAP lock objects.
• BTC: For processing background jobs.
• SPO: For spool formatting processes.

PID

Process ID of the work process (on the operating system).

Status

• Running (executing a request)
• Waiting (idle and waiting for work)
• Hold (held for one user) is not an abnormal state, but a work process can only serve a single user. If too many processes are in hold status, then system performance suffers. You can use the Reason column to identify work processes with status hold that can be released.
• Stopped (aborted with Restart set to No)

Reason

If a work process is in hold status, the reason is displayed. Typical reasons are: Debugging, CPIC activity, locks, updates, GUI (system waits for response from the SAPGUI front-end program, for example, for a remote function call (RFC)). You may also see PRIV (PRIVate use) as a reason for holding a work process. PRIV indicates that a work process is reserved for a single user for memory management use. The work process has exceeded the limit of the SAP memory that is used by other processes. The process is held as long as the current user requires local memory.

Start

Indicates whether the process should be automatically restarted if a process ends prematurely. You can change the restart status of a process by choosing Process > Restart after error > Yes/No. Normally, leave Restart set to Yes. If a work process aborts during its startup, the system automatically sets Restart to No. This measure protects against endless attempts to restart a process if a database system is not available, or another serious problem is affecting the system. After correcting the problem, you can change Restart to Yes so that the system starts the work processes.

Error

Indicates how many times a work process has aborted.

Sem

Indicates the number of the semaphore for which a work process is waiting. Normally, this field should be empty. If one or more semaphore numbers frequently appears, evaluate the performance of your system using the Performance Monitor.

CPU

Cumulative CPU time since the start of a work process.

Time

Indicates the elapsed time used by a work process for the dialog step that it is currently processing

• Report – ABAP program or report that is currently being executed
• Client – Client for the session that is currently being executed
• User – User whose request is currently being processed
• Action – Action that is being executed by the current program. The actions displayed are recorded by the SAP Performance Monitor. The Performance Monitor must be active (SAP profile parameter stat/level = 1(default)) for actions or database table accesses to be displayed.
• Table – If the database is being accessed, this column shows the name of the table being accessed.