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Q247293: SMS: Server Discovery DDRs Flood Sites

Article: Q247293
Product(s): Microsoft Systems Management Server
Version(s): 2.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbtool kbsms200 kbsms200bug
Last Modified: 23-OCT-2000

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Systems Management Server version 2.0 
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SYMPTOMS
========

When excessive DDR files are created by the WINNT_SERVER_DISCOVERY discovery
agent, it may cause backlogs in the Ddm.box file and in inter-site
communications. Note that this issue is most severe in an environment with
multiple sites in a single domain with logon installation or discovery enabled.

CAUSE
=====

This problem can occur because WINNT_SERVER_DISCOVERY_AGENT is (by default)
scheduled to run every day at 12:12 PM. This discovery agent generates a DDR for
each site system in the site, and this data must be replicated to the parent
site, possibly causing excessive inter-site traffic and producing an excessive
load on the discovery data manager thread of the executive.

STATUS
======

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Systems Management Server
version 2.0 and is fixed in Service Pack 2. Server Discovery is now tied to
Heartbeat Discovery and will run on its configured time interval.

MORE INFORMATION
================

This issue is most severe in an environment with multiple sites in a single
domain with logon installation or discovery enabled. In this situation, each
domain controller is a site system for each site and as such, each site's
WINNT_SERVER_DISCOVERY_AGENT creates a DDR for every domain controller in
addition to the normal site systems. For example, if there are 100 BDCs and each
BDC is a site server in the hierarchy, every site server creates a DDR for each
of these BDCs, so all 100 sites generate at least 100 DDRs (which totals to
10,000 DDRs daily). These DDRs will then be replicated up the hierarchy, causing
additional inter-site traffic. One other aspect of this particular site design
is that the DDRs generated will be larger than normal because there is an
"agentinfo" field for every site that shares the logon point, and the larger
DDRs are then processed at a slower rate than those which do not have the
additional fields.

Additional query words: prodsms

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Keywords          : kbtool kbsms200 kbsms200bug 
Technology        : kbSMSSearch kbSMS200
Version           : :2.0
Issue type        : kbprb

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