Network Traffic Regulation

The network administrator has new settings to control the amount of account replication traffic over the WAN or RAS. Windows NT Server version 3.5/3.51 now has a parameter for BDCs, called ReplicationGovernor, that defines both the size of the data transferred on each call to the PDC and the frequency of those calls. Adjusting the ReplicationGovernor percentage affects both the amount of traffic sent and the frequency of sending the information.

The ReplicationGovernor parameter trades off the ability to regulate network traffic with the time it takes to complete replication by:

• • Reducing the size of the buffer used on each call from the BDC to the PDC, ensuring that a single call does not consume the WAN link for too long.
• • Causing Net Logon to essentially "sleep" between calls, allowing other applications to access the WAN link between calls to the PDC.

The NetLogon service can now be paused on any Windows NT Server version 3.5/3.51 machine, including the PDC of a domain. When paused, the NetLogon service will not be the target of any pass-through authentication, allowing the machine to be available for other purposes. For example, one might pause the NetLogon service on the PDC of the domain to allow it to replicate to more BDCs. Both the PDC and BDC must be running Windows NT Server version 3.5/3.51 in order to take advantage of this improvement.