Performance issues occur when you filter a large CA database on a Windows Server 2003-based computer

Consider the following scenario. On a Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based computer, the certification authority (CA) database contains more than 1.2 million certificates. Additionally, the .edb file grows to a size of 7 gigabytes (GB) or more. In this scenario, the following symptoms occur:

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When you run a query, the query requires an unexpectedly long time to run (one to two hours). Specifically, this symptom occurs when the query uses two filters that were created over an indexed field in the CA database.

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When you use the CA Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in to filter the CA database, this snap-in stops responding (hangs). Specifically, this snap-in stops responding for anywhere from 10 minutes to indefinitely. This behavior occurs in one of the following circumstances: � Immediately after you define the filter inside the CA MMC snap-in � When you try to switch between CA MMC folders and after you have defined the filter

There is currently no known workaround for the first symptom. To work around the second symptom, use the certutil command-line tool instead of the CA MMC snap-in for filtering operations. For example, use the following command:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.