A logical server is a hierarchy or one or more other logical and/or real SAP spool servers. Logical servers can be used in place of real SAP spool servers everywhere in the spool system. A device definition can, for example, specify a logical server as its spool server.

To resolve a logical spool server to a real SAP spool server, the spool system scans the hierarchies defined for the logical server. When a device definition specifies a logical server, the spool system looks through the server hierarchy to find a real server to process the output requests.

Using logical servers provides you with the following three possibilities for printer administration:

• Grouping devices (local and remote printers): It allows you to organize SAP output devices into groups. For example, you can define logical servers for remote devices and local devices. Both logical servers could point to the same real SAP spool server. You can also manipulate devices separately, to assign them to a different spool server, for example.

• Switching servers: If you assign output devices to a logical server, you can then switch the devices from one server to another quickly and easily. For example, if a spool server is down for maintenance, you can switch all of its devices to another server simply by changing the Mapping field in the logical server definition. When the original server is again available, you can switch the devices back to it just as easily.

• Defining a uniform, transportable printing landscape: In contrast to real servers, logical servers can have the same names in multiple SAP Systems. Logical servers allow you to define a uniform SAP printing architecture and transport this architecture to all your systems.

This type of output architecture – device definitions and server definitions – can be transported in its entirety from one SAP System to another. After transport, all you have to do is specify the real spool servers found in the relevant systems.