ADAM service runs slowly or stops responding during garbage collection

Consider the following scenario:

• You have a computer that is running Windows Server 2003.
• You install Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) on this computer.
• You have configured multiple replicas of the application naming context for ADAM.

In this scenario, the server may periodically run slowly for several minutes or may periodically stop responding for several minutes. This issue occurs every several hours. Additionally, one or more of the following events are added to the ADAM log:If you use Performance Monitor (Perfmon.exe) to monitor the computer, you find that the CPU usage and the disk I/O are very high when this issue occurs.

If you enable the garbage collection event logging according to Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article 314980, you find that the garbage collection process runs when this issue occurs. However, the tombstone objects are not deleted.

Refer to the "Cause" section in KB article 974803.

Hotfix information

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing the problem described in this article. This hotfix might receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next software update that contains this hotfix.

If the hotfix is available for download, there is a "Hotfix download available" section at the top of this Knowledge Base article. If this section does not appear, contact Microsoft Customer Service and Support to obtain the hotfix.

Note If additional issues occur or if any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Service and Support telephone numbers or to create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Note The "Hotfix download available" form displays the languages for which the hotfix is available. If you do not see your language, it is because a hotfix is not available for that language.

Prerequisites

To apply this hotfix, your computer must be running Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2). Additionally, ADAM must be installed on the computer.

For more information about how to obtain a Windows Server 2003 service pack, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Installation instructions

To install this hotfix, follow these steps:

1. Log on as an administrator.
2. Stop the related ADAM instance.
3. Open an ADAM Tools Command Prompt window.
4. At a command prompt, type the following commands, and then press ENTER after each command:
   dsdbutil
   semantic database analysis
   go fixup
5. Restart the related ADAM instance.

Restart requirement

You do not have to restart the computer after you apply this hotfix.

Hotfix replacement information

This hotfix does not replace a previously released hotfix.

File information

The English (United States) version of this hotfix installs files that have the attributes that are listed in the following tables. The dates and the times for these files are listed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The dates and the times for these files on your local computer are displayed in your local time together with your current daylight saving time (DST) bias. Additionally, the dates and the times may change when you perform certain operations on the files.

Windows Server 2003 file information notes

• In addition to the files that are listed in these tables, this hotfix also installs an associated security catalog file (KBnumber.cat) that is signed with a Microsoft digital signature.

For all supported x86-based versions of Windows Server 2003

For all supported x64-based versions of Windows Server 2003

To work around this issue, increase the size of the version storage by changing the value of the following registry item: Note The value for this registry item represents the number of 16 KB memory chunks that are reserved. The following table contains some sample values for this registry item and the corresponding amount of memory that is reserved.
Note We recommend that you do not set an arbitrary high value for this registry item because the computer may run out of memory in the Lsass.exe process space for other tasks. This recommendation is especially true on an x86-based version of Windows.

When testing for the required value, we recommend that you approach the required value in increments of 50 MB. The value that enables garbage collection to work is the value that we recommended you first try on any other affected computer. If the garbage collector does not run successfully when the value is 19200 (302 MB), we recommend that you contact Microsoft Customer Support Services for help.

Increasing the size of the version storage is only a temporary workaround for this issue. This workaround enables the garbage collection code to pass the inconsistent objects. However, this issue may occur again when the next tombstone lifetime interval occurs, or when the objects meet the requirements for the Garbage Collector scan again.

Note

• A value change for the registry item is applied after you restart the ADAM instance.
• You may experience the same issue if Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) is enabled on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2. To work around this issue in this scenario, use this same workaround.

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

Refer to the more information section in KB article 974803.