General Guidelines for Optimal Printer
Throughput
Use
The following general guidelines will help you to achieve optimal print throughput in your SAP System.
Prerequisite
You have determined the printer requirements as described in the Planning the SAP Print Architecture section.
Guidelines for Assigning Printer Groups to Spool Servers
The following guidelines apply, depending on whether you are configuring time-critical production printers, mass printers, or non-critical printers:
Production Printers (Time-Critical Printers)
You should usually set up time-critical printers for local printing (access methods C, L, and E). With local printing you use time-critical printers from servers on which both the spool work processes or the spool service and the host spool system are running.
As there is no physical separation between the spool work process and the host spool system with local printing; that is, there is no network between the two, transfer routes are short and local printing is quick.
As output with the remote access methods U and S is slower, you should only use these if the host system fulfills the following prerequisites:
High reliability
High data throughput in the network between the spool work process and the host spool system
UNIX workstations, for example, fulfill these prerequisites as print servers in a reliable LAN network. They are therefore defined in the SAP System with the access method U. For more information, see Remote Printing.
If problems occur with a printer defined with access method U or S tend to reduce performance for other printers serviced by the same spool server.
A printer with access method U or S cannot be accessed because its host system is not running or the network link to the host is down.
If the spool server attempts to send an output request to the printer, it must wait for network time-outs to cancel the communication attempt. Only then can the spool server process other output requests.
You can reduce this problem by defining multiple spool work processes on your servers.
Mass Printers
● You can use any access method. However, we recommend that you use a local access method for performance reasons.
To use remote access methods, you require a fast network and a reliable printer server as a communication partner.
● Set up a separate spool server so that processing of long lists does not affect the output of other output requests.
Non-Critical Printers
The following guidelines apply to non-critical printers:
● Set up a separate spool server so that they do not affect and are not affected by print requests for other printers.
If non-critical and mass printers are serviced by the same spool server, for example, then large output requests may cause delays in processing smaller requests.
● You should never use a spool server for both time-critical and non-critical printers, as the non-critical output requests could block the processing of the time-critical output requests.
If a non-critical printer that uses access method U or S cannot be accessed, time-critical printing may be seriously delayed.
Guidelines for Application Servers
If there are several application servers in your SAP System, you should set up each application server as a spool server and assign the output devices to these servers.
Additional Guidelines
...
1. To optimize the output speed, deactivate the status query through the host spool system and the print manager.
To do this, select the Do Not Query Host Spooler for Output Status option in the relevant device definition.
2. If necessary, deactivate the Delete After Output option that automatically deletes output requests that have been output successfully. You can display your user master record by choosing System → User Profile → Own Data.
If you have deactivated the Delete After Output option, we recommend that you regularly Delete Spool Requests in the Background once they have been correctly output.
See also:
Example: Optimal Printer Configuration
