SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

2214831 - How to enable Case-Insensitive Usernames in SuccessFactors and both other SAP systems IAS and Workzone

Symptom

  • Is there a way to enable / disable non-case-sensitive Usernames in SucessFactors?
  • We would like to make the Usernames in SuccessFactors non case senstive.
  • Enable username case-insensitive in SuccessFactors and synchronize the changes to the other systems like (IAS, WorkZone etc.)

Environment

SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suite

Resolution

Q1: Is there a way to enable / disable non-case-sensitive Usernames in SucessFactors?

A1: Yes, it is possible to enable non-case-sensitive username in SuccessFactors but No duplicate usernames can exist in the instance - if there are duplicate usernames in the system an error message might appear upon attempting to enable the feature.

Note: Before 2H 2023 release (aka b2311 release) Single Sign-On was a mandatory pre-requiste that should be enabled in the instance otherwise this feature won't work. Starting 2H 2023 release (aka b2311 release) this is no more mandatory.

 Q2.  How do we Enable username case-insensitive in SuccessFactors and synchronize the changes to the other systems like (IAS, WorkZone etc.)

(Content)

If you have migrated to SAP Cloud Identity Services – Identity Authentication IAS and have username case-sensitive, please follow the steps below to switch to case-insensitive.

To enable username case-insensitive in SuccessFactors, you can take following steps:

  • Run the check "There are no duplicate usernames in the case-insensitive mode. (DuplicatedUsernamesWithCaseInSensitive)" to get a list of user accounts and employments with duplicate username in your tenant (in User Account Management application of Admin Center->Check Tool->System Health).  
    • If you have duplicate usernames in employments, please use the Employee Import admin tool to fix the duplicates..
    • If you have duplicate login names in user accounts, please use the Manage Login Accounts admin tool to fix the duplicates. 
  • After all duplicate login names and usernames are fixed, re-run the check again to ensure no duplicate username case. 
  • If no duplicate username in the case-insensitive mode, you can go to Admin Center->Company System and Logo Setting and enable the checkbox "Enable Case-Insensitive Usernames". 
  • Note: after enabling username case-insensitive, you can not disable it any more to ensure the integration moving forward. 

Once this is done you can proceed with synchronising the changes to the other systems (like Identity Authentication service aka IAS, embedded SAP Analytics Cloud aka SAC, WorkZone etc). As initially there were some duplicated usernames in the user source (SuccessFactors system) - Identity Provisioning system has mapped the accounts with duplicated usernames to just 1 account on the target systems and as there was a concurrency in the user update you cannot rely on consistency of the user data. There are 2 ways to do this and you can to choose one of them based on your specific case or requirements.

Option 1: Delete manually the corresponding accounts on the target systems and execute Resync job (full force sync).

This will ensure that all properties are correctly replicated to the newly created accounts on the systems (on which the users were deleted).
Note:

  • any data that was set initially by some of the users will be lost (like passwords or other specific attributes).
  • this option is not suitable in case of target systems where the users cannot be deleted manually (like embedded SAC), as in these cases the user provisioning mapping N to 1 will remains.

Option 2: Reset the SuccessFactors source system configuration in IPS (as is described here - Reset an Identity Provisioning System) and execute Resync job (full force sync).

In this way the user data of the existing accounts on the target systems (IAS, SAC, WorkZone etc.) will be preserved. So, they will used by the users which usernames were not changed and for those with changed usernames - new accounts will be created.
Note:

  • Due to the data inconsistency this may have some side effects on the targets
  • in case of huge user population in SuccessFactors this can be long running process

Q3: There is no duplicate Non-Case-Sensitive usernames in the instance and I still cannot enable the feature?

Please review this KBA 2089382 - User Import Errors - Duplicate Username or Username has already been taken by a soft purged user - Platform (sap.com) and If you are still unable to find any duplicate records in your instance, please open a case with SAP Cloud Support Team under component LOD-SF-PLT and ask to check the database to see if any purged records exist with a duplicate username. Users purged via the DRTM tool can impact this feature enablement.

 

Q4: Are technical users such as TECHNICAL_USER_INBOX_CEF979F3 affected by the Case-Insensitive Username?

Technical users also known as ExtensionServiceUser are not normal users and do not get affected by the Case-Insensitive Username feature.

See Also

  • 2472648 Check Tool: How to check your SuccessFactors configuration
  • 2674588 -  SSO - Manage SAML SSO Settings 

Keywords

Username case sensitive, Non Case Sensitive, Duplicate username, PLA-5734, case-insensitive username, TECHNICAL_USER_INBOX_CEF979F3 , KBA , LOD-SF-PLT , Platform Foundational Capabilities , LOD-SF-PLT-MNG , Manage user Issues , How To

Product

SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suite all versions