Error: Cannot set attribute password to a service user. Check the import data.

We do user master export/import many times, but one rarely need to do JAVA user master export and import. SAP JAVA also have good functionality via Identity Management option via NWA. But sometimes while importing user master including JAVA service user export, we may get error like,

Error: Cannot set attribute password to a service user. Check the import data.

This issue is mainly with SAP JAVA service user export. Error screenshot will be something as follows.

How to Address Issue

To address this issue with JAVA service user export, we need to validate the export file for the entries. Normally syntax for export for normal user will be as follows.

[User]
uid=<User Name>
password={SHA-256, 10000, 24}<Hash Type password>
last_name=<>
email_address=<>
accessibility=0
role=<>
group=<>

Also Read

Transport of Copies in SAP

And for service user, syntax will be like,

[User]
uid=<User Nmae>
last_name=<>
accessibility=0
$serviceUser$:SERVICEUSER_ATTRIBUTE=IS_SERVICEUSER

So as per error in above screenshot, mainly issue with JAVA service user export might be that export file still have entry for password field. Also as service user will not have any password, it will be marked as null. Due to this issue, user import is not successful. Example of one service user is as follows.

[User]
uid=anonymous
password=null
last_name=anonymous
accessibility=0
$serviceUser$:SERVICEUSER_ATTRIBUTE=IS_SERVICEUSER

To solve this issue, we need to remove password field and then save the entries in file. Now use this new file for user import. That’s it!

Sample user entry is as follows.

[User]
uid=anonymous
last_name=anonymous
accessibility=0
$serviceUser$:SERVICEUSER_ATTRIBUTE=IS_SERVICEUSER