SNAHOSTPROCESS Requires Restart With New Host Security Domain

• Microsoft SNA Server for Windows NT version 3.0

SYMPTOMS

If the SNA Server Host Account Synchronization service (SNAHOSTPROCESS) is started with an existing host security domain defined in SNA Server Manager, and a new host security domain is defined, the Host Account Synchronization service must be restarted before it will recognize the new host security domain.

Until this service is restarted, password changes for this new host security domain are ignored.

CAUSE

The SNA Server Host Account Synchronization service was not detecting the creation of new host security domains, after it was already started.

RESOLUTION

An update to SNA Server 3.0 is available to correct this problem.

The Host Account Synchronization service (SNAHOSTPROCESS) now dynamically detects changes to the host security domain definitions (including addition and removal of host security domains). Note that the following restrictions apply:

• Changes to existing host security domains do not take effect until the Host Account Synchronization service is restarted.
• When a new host security domain is added or removed, the Domains registry key and values are written within the registry. When this occurs, the SNAHOSTPROCESS is notified of the change, and attempts to load the associated security DLL for the host security domain.

  NOTE: For vendors implementing installation programs for their host security agents, the installation program should copy over the security DLL at the very end of their installation, before updating the registry with the new configuration information. This will ensure that the SNAHOSTPROCESS will not attempt to initialize the security DLL before the installation has completed.

• The SNAHOSTPROCESS service will no longer exit even if there are no active host security domains.

   <Snaroot>\System\Hostproc.exe

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):