Active Administrator 8.6.3 - User Guide

DC Memory Usage

DC Memory Usage

Indicates that the RAM memory usage on the domain controller is greater than 60 percent. The alert becomes critical if the memory usage is greater than 80 percent.

Data collector

•	Category: Performance Counters

•	Name: Memory Usage

•	Supported on: Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2019

•	Required permissions: When monitored locally and remotely, only domain user privilege is required and the user must be a part of the Performance Logs user group.

Description

The Directory Analyzer agent monitors the Memory Usage performance counter on the domain controller. If the value of the performance counter goes above the configured threshold for a period exceeding the configured duration, the agent will set this alert condition.

Increased memory usage is a result of running too many applications on the server, or running applications that require too much physical memory.

It is also possible that memory use has increased due to some pathological condition in a particular application. For instance, Active Directory® itself requires substantial resources when it is processing inherited Access Control Lists (ACLs). Active Directory can also require a lot of resources when it processes complex, non-indexed directory searches.

Resolution

First, try to determine if the increased memory use is due to a particular program, or if it is due to running too many programs. Use a utility like Task Manager to inspect the memory usage of all processes on the system. If there are several processes getting more than 60% of the memory, then the problem is most likely due to running too many programs on the server. If possible, stop some of the programs.

If one process is using all of the memory for an extended period of time, it may be due to a bug in the software, or it may be that the program just requires too much memory. If possible, stop the program and run it on a different computer.

DC properties dropped

DC properties dropped

Indicates directory property updates were dropped during replication.

Data collector

•	Category: Performance Counters

•	Name: NTDS DRA inbound properties filtered a second

•	Supported on: Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2019

•	Required permissions: When monitored locally and remotely, only domain user privilege is required and the user must be a part of the Performance Logs user group.

Description

The Directory Analyzer agent monitors the NTDS\DRA Inbound Properties Filtered\second performance counter on the domain controller. If the value of the performance counter goes above the configured threshold for a period exceeding the configured duration, the agent sets this alert condition.

During the replication process, Directory Service Agent (DSA) checks each incoming attribute and determines if it was modified subsequent to the version the DSA already has. If the incoming version is later than what the DSA has, the DSA will store the attribute in the directory. If the attribute is the same version or earlier than what the DSA already has, the DSA will drop the attribute, ignoring it for the purposes of replication. This is called a dropped property.

An occasional dropped property is not cause for concern, but a consistent rate of dropped properties may indicate a problem with the replication topology or with the behavior of the domain controllers. A domain controller that is consistently dropping properties during replication is wasting network bandwidth and processing time checking replicated properties that it cannot use.

Resolution

•	Wait for several replication cycles to see if the problem clears up by itself.

•	If the alert persists, check that the server has good connectivity with each of its replication partners.

•	If the alert does not clear by itself in a reasonable amount of time, contact your Microsoft® Windows® support representative.

DC RID pool low

DC RID pool low

Generated when the available pool of relative identifiers (RIDs) on the selected domain controller is less than or equal to the configured threshold.

Data collector

•	Category: General

•	Name: Domain controller relative identifier (RID)

•	Supported on: Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2019

•	Required permissions: When monitored locally and remotely, only domain user privilege is required.

Description

Each Directory Analyzer agent monitors the RID pool assigned to the domain controller. If the number of RIDs available to the server goes below the threshold configured by the administrator, the Directory Analyzer agent will issue this alert.

All security principals in the Windows NT Security Architecture are assigned a unique security ID (SID). The SID is made up of a domain identifier and a RID. RIDs are sequential numbers issued by the domain each time a new security principal (for instance a user object) is created in that domain.

Because each domain controller can create security principals, Active Directory® breaks the available range of RIDs into allocation pools that it assigns to each domain controller. Active Directory assigns one domain controller in each domain to be responsible for allocating RID pools to all of the other domain controllers in the domain; this is the RID Operations Master. When a domain controller uses up its allocation, it requests a new range from the RID Operations Master.

If a domain controller has a problem contacting the RID Operations Master, the domain controller can actually use up its entire allocation of RIDs, and be unable to create new security principals, which can result in failures when adding new users, services, and domain controllers to the domain.

Resolution

Contact your Microsoft Windows support representative.

DC SMB connections

DC SMB connections

Indicates the number of Server Message Block (SMB) connections in use on the domain controller equals or exceeds the configured threshold.

Data collector

•	Category: Performance Counters

•	Name: Server sessions

•	Supported on: Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2019

•	Required permissions: When monitored locally and remotely, only domain user privilege is required and the user must be a part of the Performance Logs user group.

Description

The Directory Analyzer agent monitors the Server\Server Sessions performance counter on the domain controller. If the value of the performance counter goes above the configured threshold for a period exceeding the configured duration, the agent will set this alert condition.

System Message Block (SMB) is the protocol for file and print access. Whenever a client workstation accesses files or directories on a server, or whenever the workstation prints a document to a network printer, the client uses an SMB connection.

The number of SMB connections in use on a server is a rough indication of the number of client workstations that are accessing the servers. An unusually high number of SMB connections indicates a large number of clients accessing the server.

A large number of SMB connections will use some amount of memory on the server, though this is generally not a big problem. However, the inordinate number of clients accessing the server can have a negative effect on overall server performance and consequently a negative effect on directory performance as well.

Resolution

Determine if the increased number of SMB connections is degrading the overall performance of the server. If the performance is being affected, you will see other alerts from Active Directory Health Analyzer, including DC LDAP response too slow, Domain controller CPU load, DC cache hits, and Domain controller page faults.

•	If you are not getting these additional alerts, the increased number of SMB connections is not adversely affecting the performance of the domain controller. You may wish to increase the threshold for this alert.

•	If you are getting these additional alerts, the performance of the DSA is being adversely affected, and you should try to reduce the number of clients connected to the domain controller.