Access Methods

To be able to address an output device from the SAP System in which you are working, you must configure the output device in this SAP System using a device definition.

When you configure the output device in a device definition, you specify the access method with which the output device is connected to the SAP System, such as whether you are using local or remote printing. The access method is identified by a letter and informs the system which architecture is in use and which operating system you are using.

The access method is specified during the definition of output devices in the SAP System so that the system knows how it should transfer the spool work process data for this output device to the host spool system.

There are the following access methods:

Access Method	Use
C	Local printing from a Microsoft Windows NT or Microsoft Windows 2000 system or from AS/400 and OS/390. The spool work process of the SAP System  and the host spool system (operating system spooler) are on the same host.
L	Local printing from a UNIX system The spool work process of the SAP System  and the host spool system (operating system spooler) are on the same host.
S	Printing using a remote Microsoft Windows PC with the SAPSprint service program. The spool work process of the SAP System and SAPSprint are on different hosts. The spool work process transfers the output data to the SAPSprint on the remote PC.
U	Printing using a remote UNIX server or Microsoft Windows PC (with or without use of SAPSprint), where the spool work process of the SAP System and the host spool system (operating system spooler) are on different hosts. The spool work process transfers the output data to the host spooler in the remote system using the Berkeley protocol (BSD).
F	Printing on a frontend printer Output requests are printed locally at the user’s PC.
E	Printing using an external output management system The printer is connected to an external output management system.
P	Printing using a device pool
I	Archiver The device is an archiving device for SAP Archivelink.
M	Printing using e-mail