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Chapter 10: R/3 System AdministrationSpecific Transaction Monitoring OverviewA “lock” is a mechanism that prevents other users from changing the record on which youare working. The example below illustrates the importance of using this function.You are changing a customer mailing address, while someone is simultaneously changingthe customer’s telephone number. You first save your change; then the other person saveshis or her change. The other person’s change overwrites your change, and your changewill be lost.There may be “old” locks still in place from transactions that did not release, or from whenthe user was cut off from the network. Unless cleared, these locks prevent access or changeto the record until the system is cycled. The easiest way to locate these locks is to look forlocks from prior days.We presume that the profile parameter rdisp/gui_auto_logout has been set. This parameterdefines an automatic logout of the user if there is no activity for the set number of minutes.Setting the auto_logout parameter is recommended for security. It is also an item for whichyour external auditors may test. The parameter is a global setting that applies to all userson the instance. You cannot have different logout times for different groups of users on thesame instance.The only way to have different logout times for different groups of users is to have specificgroups (for example, Finance) log in to specific instances (for example, the Financeapplication server) where this parameter is set in the instance profile of that instance.System Administration Made Easy10–41