Document Number generation in SRM

[Former Member]

Hi All,

We have allocated a number range to various documents ( PO's, Contracts & Shopping carts ) in SRM SPRO. During transactions such as creating PO's & Contracts the number range gets generated even before saving the order.

This leads to a situation where the number range gets allocated even when the order is not saved. Due to this problem we have observed that the number remains unconsumed & there is a skip in the PO numbers.

Please provide a suitable solution to this issue. Also, confirm if this is a part of SRM standard functionality.

Regards,

Srinivas Reddy

[jason_boggans]

Hi Srinivas,

Number ranges in the system are buffered in the main memory of

the application server. The server reads the next 10 free numbers

when starting up or when these 10 numbers are consumed. The symptom

you described can happen as follows:

Server 1 has 10 numbers 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 in memory.

Server 2 has 10 numbers 12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21 in memory.

A user logged on server 1 creates a document with number 2. Another

user creates the next document. If this user is logged on server 2,

this document will have the number 12. If you shut down a server,

the numbers not used are lost. This causes a gap in the sequence.

In case of having one server only, a missing number can happen when

rebooting the server. If the server had number range 2 - 11 in memory

and the last created document was no. 3, the next number after

rebooting the server will be no. 12.

To avoid having gaps in the number range, turn buffering off using

transaction SNUM for a particular object, REQREQ (shopping carts),

for example. In that case the system reads the number from the database

strictly in order. However, please understand that buffering is

turned for performance reasons.

Regards

Jason