Group Policies Cause Excessive \PIPE\samr Connections on PDC (191634)

SYMPTOMS

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

Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service.
Do you want to select another domain to administer?

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

CAUSE

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.

RESOLUTION

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:

152734 How to Obtain the Latest Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack

Apply the file, Userenv.dll, to each workstation.

STATUS

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.