djmapper:

A lot of users at ArcGIS Server 10 would have been used to going into their service config files and updating the SchemaLockEnabled tag to false, this stops AGS creating locks on your data.

At ArcGIS 10.1 this and a lot of other administration tasks can be done directly on the REST endpoint. This is described below.

Prevent ArcGIS Server 10.1 Services From Placing Locks On Your Data