Password Change DLL Fails if First Host Account Cache Offline

• Microsoft SNA Server for Windows NT, version 3.0

SYMPTOMS

The password change DLL, a component installed on Windows NT primary domain controllers (PDCs) as part of the Windows NT account synchronization option of SNA Server host security setup, may fail to initialize when the PDC is rebooted. When the initialization failure occurs, it will log an error indicating that it cannot locate the password management service (SnaPMP, the SNA Windows NT account synchronization service). This will happen if the SNA host account cache running in only one of the resource domains is offline or unreachable even though host account cache services in other domains are reachable at the time.

CAUSE

Although host security setup for Windows NT account synchronization prompts the user for multiple domains that contain a host account cache, the password change DLL tries to initialize with only the first of the configured domain names. The password change DLL needs to find the host account cache to locate the primary Windows NT account synchronization service (SnaPMP), which may be running in another Windows NT Server domain.

RESOLUTION

The password change DLL has been enhanced to search all specified domains. The list of domains is specified in the following registry key where the Windows NT account synchronization option of host security is installed:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\SNAPmp\Parameters
      MdbDomains: REG_MULTI_SZ: <domain1> <domain2> ...

   \<snaroot>\Snapwchg.dll

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in SNA Server version 3.0. This problem was corrected in the latest Microsoft SNA Server 3.0 U.S. Service Pack. For information on obtaining the service pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

   S E R V P A C K