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Chapter 4: Scheduled Daily TasksCritical TasksA user logged on to more than one terminal indicates that the user ID is being: Used by someone else Used or shared by several peopleA lock is a mechanism that prevents other users from changing the record on which you areworking. An example that illustrates the importance of using this function follows.You are changing a customer mailing address. Someone else is changing the customer’stelephone number at the same time. You save your change first; then the other personsaves their 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 when theuser was cut off from the network. Unless cleared, these locks prevent access or change tothe record until the system is cycled. The easiest way to locate them is to look for locks fromprior 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.A failed update, or an “update terminate,” is an update to the failed database. These failedupdates occur when a user entry or transaction is not entered or updated in the database.The following analogy should help clarify this concept:1. A secretary gives a file clerk a folder (similar to a save).2. The file clerk gives the secretary a receipt (similar to the R/3 document number).3. On the way to the file cabinet, the clerk falls, and gets hurt.The folder in not put into the cabinet (this is the failed update).4. The end result is the folder is not in the cabinet—even though the secretary has thereceipt.For performance reasons, the database update is done in asynchronous mode. In this mode,the user continues to work while the system takes over the update process and waits for the4–12Release 4.6A/B