System Appears to Stop when Adding Users to Large Global Groups

 Last reviewed: September 7, 1996
Article ID: Q151962
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5 and 3.51
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5 and 3.51

SYMPTOMS

Whenever users are added to user-defined global groups, CPU use for the LSASS service is taxed to its limit, causing the domain controller to come to a halt for a few minutes. The user-defined global groups must contain thousands of users for this to occur. This issue has been encountered with user-defined global groups that contain 2,000 to 4,000 users.

CAUSE

When Netlogon calls the security account manager (SAM) to enumerate the global group's attributes, the SAM enumerates the attributes for each user in the global group, causing an extreme load on the domain controller.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 3.51. This problem was corrected in the latest Windows NT 3.51 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

KBCategory: kbusage
KBSubcategory: ntdomain NTSrvWkst
Additional reference words: prodnt 3.50 3.51

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Last reviewed: September 7, 1996
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