1001 Secrets for Windows NT Registry
(Publisher: 29th Street Press)
Author(s): Tim Daniels
ISBN: 1882419685
Publication Date: 12/01/97

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I-189 If you are having database problems with your primary domain controllers (PDCs), you may want them to completely synchronize every time they boot. This value lets you control the behavior of individual domain controllers. Change the Update value to Yes.

Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters
Value Name: Update
Data Type: REG_SZ
Value: Yes

I-190 If you apply large-scale changes to your domain user accounts all at once, you can cause network congestion. Tuning the following parameters can help reduce that congestion.

Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters

Add the ChangeLogSize value.

Value Name: ChangeLogSize
Data Type: REG_SZ
Value: 0x4000000

This value defines the size of the Change Log (%systemroot%\Netlogon.chg). The default value is 64K. Changing this value to the maximum 4 MB helps congestion on systems that are very volatile or frequently have large changes. In testing this value, we noted little impact on overall system performance.

I-191 Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters

Add the Pulse value.

Value Name: Pulse
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 300

The pulse value defines how often (in seconds) a pulse is sent to a backup domain controller (BDC) that needs to be updated with SAM or LSA changes. By default, the NetLogon service determines the optimal frequency for pulses. If you are doing lots of updates, you may need to increase this value. Frequent updates clog the network, and decreasing the value would reduce clog. However, decreasing the value means you could lose more data if your system crashes, because it’s been longer since a backup. The range is 60 to 172,800. Restart the server for this value to take effect.

I-192 Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters

Add the PulseConcurrency value.

Value Name: PulseConcurrency
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 20

This value determines the maximum number of concurrent pulses the PDC sends to BDCs. This value lets you control how many BDCs are being updated at any one time, which can reduce network traffic.

I-193 This value determines the absolute longest interval that a BDC goes without receiving a request for update (pulse), even if the BDC is up-to-date.

Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters

Add the PulseMaximum value.

Value Name: PulseMaximum
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 7200

The default is 7200 seconds (2 hours). Reboot the machine for any changes to take effect.

I-194 Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters

Add the PulseTimeout1 value.

Value Name: PulseTimeout1
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 5

This value tells the PDC how long to wait before giving up on a BDC that has failed to respond. Once a PDC sends a pulse to a BDC, the BDC must respond within this time frame; if it doesn’t, it is considered unavailable. The PDC then sends a pulse to another BDC. If this value is set very high and you have many BDCs on your network, network updates can take a long time. However, if you have a heavily congested network, setting this value too low causes the PDC to give up on the BDC prematurely. The default value is 5 seconds, and the range is 1 to 120 seconds.

I-195 Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters

Add the PulseTimeout2 value.

Value Name: PulseTimeout2
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 300

This value determines how long a PDC waits for a BDC to finish replication. Even if a BDC has responded correctly to a pulse, it is still possible for BDCs to have problems during replication. If the PDC doesn’t hear from the BDC in the interval specified by PulseTimeout2, the PDC determines that the BDC is having trouble. The default is 300 seconds, and the valid range is 60 to 300 seconds.

I-196 Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters
Value Name: Randomize
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1

When the BDC receives a pulse, it waits the number of seconds specified in the Randomize value before answering. You should keep this value small. If you tune the value in PulseTimeout1, remember to set the Randomize value smaller. If this value is not in the registry, Netlogon figures out the best value depending on server load. Restart the machine for any changes to take effect.

I-197 Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters
Value Name: ReplicationGovernor
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 100

This value sets the frequency with which the PDC transfers data to the BDC and the amount of data it sends at a time. If the replication governor is set to 50, the BDC has a replication call pending only 50 percent of the time and uses a 64K buffer instead of the 128K buffer it uses for a 100 setting. A value of 0 causes Netlogon to never replicate, which gets the databases on the PDC and BDC completely out of sync.


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