The Active Directory DIT file grows too fast

The Ntds.dit directory information tree (DIT) file for the Active Directory directory service may grow too fast. For example, the size of this file may increase by approximately 50 percent in less than 24 hours. Because of this growth in file size, if your domain controller does not have sufficient hard disk space, your domain controller may crash.

This problem occurs because the security descriptor propagator behaves incorrectly when it encounters an error during an operation to add security descriptor core propagation data to a record in the DIT database.

Note The growth described in the "Symptoms" section of this article may also be caused when a valid operation against Active Directory requires more space to be allocated. One example of a valid operation that may cause this growth is an operation that makes many changes to the discretionary access control list (DACL) of an object at a level in Active Directory that affects many child objects. Before you install the hotfix that is described in the "Resolution" section of this article, try to determine whether operations have recently been performed that may cause many changes to occur in Active Directory.

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 this specific problem.

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, submit a request to 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

You must be running Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 (SP4) to install this hotfix. For additional information about how to obtain SP4 for Windows 2000, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Restart requirement

You must restart your computer after you apply this hotfix.

Hotfix replacement information

This hotfix does not replace any other hotfixes.

File information

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.

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

For additional information about how hotfix packages are named, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For additional information about the terminology that is used in this article, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: