SAP Logical Spool Servers

A somewhat new functionality that is available for SAP printing is the concept of the Logical Spool Server. It goes a little like this: if one of your main spool server kicks the bucket, it is a very painful process to move all of the print devices to a different server in order to facilitate printing until that spool server becomes available again. The Logical Spool Server is a logical destination inside SAP that devices can be directed to which in turn directs spool requests to actual Spool Servers, including a primary and alternative server. If the primary spool server crashes, the spooling will be switched over to the alternative server. If the alternative server is also down, pushing the spooling duties onto yet another server is handled by simply modifying the Logical Spool Server rather than modifying each individual printing device. Also, the Logical Spool Server can be configured for load balancing so that print jobs are handled by either the primary or alternative server depending on the workload of either.

• To set up a Logical Spool Server, run transaction SPAD.
• Under the Devices/Servers tab, select the Spool Servers button.
• Go into Change mode by selecting the "pencil" icon from the toolbar.
• Choose the Spool Server -> Create option, name the server and select the Logical Server box and the Load Balancing box.
• Enter your preferred mapping server and alternate server and you're done.
• Now all you have to do is assign your print devices to this Logical Spool Server.
• Give yourself a pat on the back.