SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

3395516 - You receive the error "Maintenance of user XYZ locked by SAP_SYSTEM" when trying to edit a Business User

Symptom

You are trying to edit a Business User but you get the error message 'Maintenance of user XYZ locked by SAP_SYSTEM'.

XYZ represents the Business User ID.

Environment

SAP Business ByDesign

SAP Cloud for Customer

Reproducing the Issue

  1. In SAP Business ByDesign, go to Application and User Management work center.
  2. In SAP Cloud for Customer, go to Administrator work center.
  3. Go to Business Users view.
  4. Search for the relevant Business User ID.
  5. Edit the user.
  6. You will see the error.

Cause

There could be two causes for this message:

  • Scenario 1: There is a standard automated background job that runs every hour. This job's purpose is to update Business Users' authorizations every time an Administrator makes changes to the employee's master data, such as their Org Unit Assignment or territory. Should this be done for the specific user, the associated Business User will be locked and not editable. This will only stay locked for a few minutes (unless there is a huge amount of users being updated) and it will appear as locked by SAP_SYSTEM in the UI.
  • Scenario 2: You are making frequent changes to the same Business User (for example: changing the Valid To date).

Resolution

  • For scenario 1: The user should be automatically unlocked after some time, when the background job is finished.
  • For scenario 2: we do not recommend that you make changes to a Business User so frequently (for example, on a daily basis). In case you are editing the Business User's Valid To Date and you need this in order to control the user's access to the system, you should consider using the "User Locked" checkbox instead. This prevents the user from logging into the system while it is checked and will not cause inconsistencies due to a huge amount of daily changes in the user.

Keywords

user frequently locked, business user access rights, business user attributes, locked by SAP_SYSTEM, SAP_SYSTEM , KBA , SRD-CC-IAM , Identity & Access Management , How To

Product

SAP Business ByDesign all versions ; SAP Cloud for Customer core applications all versions