Client/Server Technology (BC-CST)

A process that as a component of an application server executes an ABAP application.

To process SAP requests from several front ends, an SAP application server has a dispatcher, which collects the requests and forwards them to work processes for execution.

There are the following types of work process:

• Dialog

For executing dialog programs

• Update, Upd2

For asynchronous database updates

• Background (batch)

For executing background jobs

• Enqueue

For executing lock operations

• Spool

For print formatting

Work processes can be assigned to dedicated application servers. In the service overview (SM51), you can see which work process types are provided by the individual servers.

Each work process is logged onto the database system as a user for the entire runtime of the SAP system.

Each work process is assigned for the duration of a dialog step to an ABAP program.