Group Policies Cause Excessive \PIPE\samr Connections on PDC

Running Server Manager or User Manager for Domains results in the following error message:


The primary domain controller (PDC) shows \PIPE\samr connections in excess of 2,048. Rebooting the PDC temporarily alleviates the problem.

When a user logs on to a domain in which group policies are implemented, a \PIPE\samr connection is established with the PDC to verify group membership for this user. After the verification process, the \PIPE\samr connection is not released. These \PIPE\samr connections eventually exceed the limit of 2,048.

After this limit is reached, no new processes requiring security account manager (SAM) access can connect to the PDC until you restart the computer. Server Manager and User Manager for Domains require a connection to the PDC for domain administration. Their failure to make this connection results in the preceding error message.

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows NT 4.0 or Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Apply the file, Userenv.dll, to each workstation.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. This problem was first corrected in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition Service Pack 4.