The SMS Discovery Data Manager component may take a long time to process discovery data records after the component starts

In a large Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) hierarchy, the SMS Discovery Data Manager (DDM) component may appear to pause for a long time after the component starts. The delay may cause a backlog of discovery data record (.ddr) files.

This problem occurs because the SMS Discovery Data Manager component reads every .ncf file that is located in the \SMS\inboxes\ddm.box\data.col folder on the site server. Typically, one .ncf file exists for each site.

SMS 2003 service pack information

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Systems Management Server 2003. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

SMS 2.0 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

No prerequisites are required.

Restart requirement

You do not have to 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 file attributes) 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. The International Client Pack 1 (ICP1) version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later file attributes) 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. The International Client Pack 4 (ICP4) version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later file attributes) 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. The International Client Pack 5 (ICP5) version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later file attributes) 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.

Installation instructions

1. Create a shared folder in a location that is available to your SMS site servers.
2. Copy the SMS2.0-SP5-KB838655-X86-XXX.exe hotfix file to the shared folder, where XXX is the version of the hotfix that you downloaded.
3. At each SMS primary and secondary site server in your environment, log on by using an account that has administrative credentials.
4. Close the SMS Administrator console if it is open.
5. On each primary and secondary site server, connect to the shared folder that contains the hotfix.
6. Double-click the SMS2.0-SP5-KB838655-X86-XXX.exe file, where XXX is the version of the hotfix that you downloaded, and then follow the prompts to apply the hotfix.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section. This problem was first corrected in Systems Management Server 2003 Service Pack 2.

When the SMS Discovery Data Manager component starts, it reads every .ncf file and then runs SQL queries that are based on the information that is in the .ncf files. The .ncf files contain the subnet boundary information for each site in the hierarchy. When any site in the hierarchy modifies site boundary data, the SMS Discovery Data Manager component is notified of the change in an .sca file. This change makes it unnecessary for the SMS Discovery Data Manager component to re-synchronize the site boundary data every time that the component starts.

The SMS Discovery Data Manager component takes approximately 5 seconds to process each .ncf file. In large SMS hierarchies, the SMS Discovery Data Manager component on the central site may be delayed several hours before processing .ddr files.

You can determine whether you are experiencing this delay by monitoring the \SMS\Logs\ddm.log file when the SMS Discovery Data Manager component starts. The log records the following entry for each site in the hierarchy, where XXX is the site code of the SMS site that is being processed, and YYY is the parent site:After the last site is processed, you might notice a long delay where the SMS Discovery Data Manager component is paused. However, the component is actually processing the .ncf files.

After you apply this hotfix, you can use the NCF File Sync Interval registry value to remove the delay that occurs when the SMS Discovery Data Manager component starts. When you define a custom setting, the .ncf files are not synchronized when the SMS Discovery Data Manager component starts. The NCF File Sync Interval registry value is located in the following registry subkey:By default, the NCF File Sync Interval registry value is set to 0 (zero). This causes the default behavior where the SMS Discovery Data Manager component processes .ncf files on startup. You can specify a value in minutes from 15 to 525600 as a custom value. Any value that is larger than 15 configures the SMS Discovery Data Manager component not to process .ncf files on startup.

When the NCF File Sync Interval registry value is set to 0, the component logs the following entry every time that the component reads the registry value:

When you define a custom interval for the NCF File Sync Interval registry value, the SMS Discovery Data Manager component logs the following entry:

When .ncf file synchronization occurs and is caused by suspended DDR processing, the following is logged in the SMS\Logs\ddm.log file: For additional information about the standard terminology that is used to describe software updates, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: