Central Job Scheduling - Successor for SAP Solution Manager?

[jan_kotrc]

Hello,

We are using SAP Solution Manager as a central job scheduling tool (BC-XBP scheduling jobs from Document) to schedule background jobs on our SAP systems. Support for Solution Manager ends by 2027 so we are looking for a successor tool or platform, which is able to easily document and schedule background jobs on managed systems, which are in Private Cloud (Rise with SAP)/onpremise. SAP Cloud ALM provides monitoring for jobs, but there is no job scheduler planned.

We have found some informations about this topic on SAP:

Question: Currently we use SAP Solution Manager and SAP BPA by Redwood for Job Management. However, according to SAP Note 3216013(opens in new tab) end of Mainstream Maintenance for SAP BPA by Redwood is 31.12.2024 and SAP Solution Manager maintenance will end 31.12.2027. Will SAP Cloud ALM offer a similar functionality?

Answer: SAP Cloud ALM offers standardized ALM functions focused on operational efficiency and is free of charge for SAP customers (see here). For process automation SAP offers SAP Build Process Automation, but this product is not a successor or replacement for SAP BPA by Redwood or another external job scheduling tool like Tivoli, which have a very strong focus and a broad range of features for efficient batch process (chain) execution. To replace an external scheduler, you need to look in detail at the features and functions to decide, if you can manage job scheduling as follows: 

• use product inbuilt job scheduling tools (e.g. SAP Application Jobs in case of S/4HANA) for those processes, where SAP BPA by Redwood is used only for triggering batch execution 
• use SAP Build Process Automation (or alternative SaaS automation tools) for those processes, where SAP BPA by Redwood is used in a complex way, i.e. not only triggering the execution of a job, but based on the result triggering follow on executions 
• use Job & Automation Monitoring with SAP Cloud ALM that is retrieving job execution data directly from all SAP services and systems for monitoring.

The Job Scheduling functionality was included in SOLMAN and was pretty straightforward and easy to use. It feels like using SAP BPA or RunMyJobs from RedWood (which are both very complex and not included in cloud license) is not the best option. Are there any other options for central job scheduling? Is job scheduling really not planned for SAP Cloud ALM? 

Or is it possible to keep using SAP Solution Manager as a central Job Scheduling tool after 2027?

Best Regards

[paula_augedahl]

Hi, jan_kotrc,

I believe you found the question/answer you pose from FAQ at Job & Automation Monitoring. 

If you check a lower question on the same page:
What about Job Management in SAP Cloud ALM (similar to SAP Solution Manager)?
It states:

Question: We use SAP Solution Manager for Job Scheduling Request Management and document the scheduled jobs (using the versioning option offered). We have integration with an external ticketing system and external scheduling. Will we be able to use SAP Cloud ALM to replace SAP Solution Manager?

Answer: It is not on the roadmap of SAP Cloud ALM standard to replace all of SAP Solution Manager's Job Management capabilities, but the following Job Management is possible:

• In SAP Cloud ALM for Implementation one can (see here(opens in new tab)) 
  • request the periodic execution of jobs and automations
  • document the approved periodic executions, link them to implemented business processes and reference them to Cloud ALM job monitoring.
• In SAP Cloud ALM for Operations (Job & Automation Monitoring) one can (see here(opens in new tab))
  • get alerted, if there is a job scheduled by a not allowed user
  • get alerted, if any job that is scheduled by allowed users fails or exceeds its runtime limit
  • (soon) see in a dashboard the current status of all documented jobs and have access to the related job documentation 

There is further info there you can review.

In case the above does not meet your needs, you would need to look at a 3rd party Solution.

Just because you are considering from on-premise point-of-view, I add the following: for Cloud, there is the SAP Job Scheduling Service, but that is not for on premise systems.

(As always, you are welcome to share your ideas for possible functionality in the Influence Campaign:

 - SAP Cloud ALM for Implementation  https://influence.sap.com/sap/ino/#/campaign/3501

 - SAP Cloud ALM for Operations https://influence.sap.com/sap/ino/#/campaign/3525

As far as using SAP Solution Manager past 2027, it appears you can, however, support will be limited. We assume some customers are going to stay with Solman until 2030. Beyond that you will need to find another solution as there will not be parody between Solution Manager and Cloud ALM features.

I hope this is helpful information for you.

Best regards,
Paula

[jan_kotrc]

Hello Paula,

Thanks for your reply. I understand, as of today, the answer is to look for a 3rd party solution. What is the recommended 3rd party solution by SAP ? Which of the mentioned tools are usable as a central job schedulers ?

There is already Request ID: 339334 in the customer influence, which is relevant 🙂

Best Regards