How many user accts per DC?

Hey everyone,

I just need to know how many user accts can you have on a Domain Controller
using Windows Server 2003? I know under NT 4.0 the number was kinda small.
Can you point me to any white papers or web links? Thanks for any input.


Clayton

I believe HP did an experiment where they scaled AD up to a few million
objects.

I doubt you'll run into any limits anytime soon.

Matt Gibson - GSEC


"Clayton Sutton" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hey everyone,
>
> I just need to know how many user accts can you have on a Domain
> Controller using Windows Server 2003? I know under NT 4.0 the number was
> kinda small. Can you point me to any white papers or web links? Thanks
> for any input.
>
>
> Clayton
>

The answer really depends on how much activity each user will cause and how
powerful your server is.

You will need to be more specific before you'll get a to the point answer,
AFACT.

--


Sven.

"Clayton Sutton" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hey everyone,
>
> I just need to know how many user accts can you have on a Domain
Controller
> using Windows Server 2003? I know under NT 4.0 the number was kinda
small.
> Can you point me to any white papers or web links? Thanks for any input.
>
>
> Clayton
>
>

Don't really need a "to the point" answer. The topic just came up in a
meeting at work and someone thought that you could only have about 5,000
users in AD. However, I know that I have read SOMEWHERE of a few companies
(or trials) that had a AD of over 1,000,000 users. That's all I'm looking
for, is somewhere that talks about it.


Clayton



"SA" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> The answer really depends on how much activity each user will cause and
> how
> powerful your server is.
>
> You will need to be more specific before you'll get a to the point answer,
> AFACT.
>
> --
>
>
> Sven.
>
> "Clayton Sutton" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hey everyone,
>>
>> I just need to know how many user accts can you have on a Domain
> Controller
>> using Windows Server 2003? I know under NT 4.0 the number was kinda
> small.
>> Can you point me to any white papers or web links? Thanks for any input.
>>
>>
>> Clayton
>>
>>
>
>

"Matt Gibson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I believe HP did an experiment where they scaled AD up to a few million
> objects.
>
> I doubt you'll run into any limits anytime soon.

There have been production domains with 3 DCs
(circa 2001 and corresponding hardware but high
end for those days) in the vicinity of 10 Million
users and other objects in addition.

There have been tests (even in Win2000) of over
100 Million users/objects.

How many DCs depends on performance and the
logon patter -- if everyone boots and logs on right
at 8:00 AM the it is much worse than if people
logon randomly through the day.

Usually you need more DCs for SITES than for
users.

It is rare to have a single site of more than 10,000
users and 2 DCs can likely handle that easily (and
we have the case above with 3 DCs and 10 million
users.


--
Herb Martin


"Matt Gibson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I believe HP did an experiment where they scaled AD up to a few million
> objects.
>
> I doubt you'll run into any limits anytime soon.
>
> Matt Gibson - GSEC
>
>
> "Clayton Sutton" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Hey everyone,
> >
> > I just need to know how many user accts can you have on a Domain
> > Controller using Windows Server 2003? I know under NT 4.0 the number
was
> > kinda small. Can you point me to any white papers or web links? Thanks
> > for any input.
> >
> >
> > Clayton
> >
>
>

Perhaps they were thinking of the 5000 membership limit for groups.
This limit applies until you are at W2K3 forest mode. Then the limit is
removed via link value replication enhancement.

--
Glenn L
CCNA, MCSE 2000/2003 + Security

"Clayton Sutton" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Don't really need a "to the point" answer. The topic just came up in a
> meeting at work and someone thought that you could only have about 5,000
> users in AD. However, I know that I have read SOMEWHERE of a few
> companies (or trials) that had a AD of over 1,000,000 users. That's all
> I'm looking for, is somewhere that talks about it.
>
>
> Clayton
>
>
>
> "SA" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> The answer really depends on how much activity each user will cause and
>> how
>> powerful your server is.
>>
>> You will need to be more specific before you'll get a to the point
>> answer,
>> AFACT.
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>> Sven.
>>
>> "Clayton Sutton" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> Hey everyone,
>>>
>>> I just need to know how many user accts can you have on a Domain
>> Controller
>>> using Windows Server 2003? I know under NT 4.0 the number was kinda
>> small.
>>> Can you point me to any white papers or web links? Thanks for any
>>> input.
>>>
>>>
>>> Clayton
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>

OK, those are two different questions. You were asking about a computer, now
you are asking about an entire directory.

Yes, directories can have millions of objects, no problem

--


Sven.

"Clayton Sutton" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Don't really need a "to the point" answer. The topic just came up in a
> meeting at work and someone thought that you could only have about 5,000
> users in AD. However, I know that I have read SOMEWHERE of a few
companies
> (or trials) that had a AD of over 1,000,000 users. That's all I'm looking
> for, is somewhere that talks about it.
>
>
> Clayton
>
>
>
> "SA" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > The answer really depends on how much activity each user will cause and
> > how
> > powerful your server is.
> >
> > You will need to be more specific before you'll get a to the point
answer,
> > AFACT.
> >
> > --
> >
> >
> > Sven.
> >
> > "Clayton Sutton" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> > news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> >> Hey everyone,
> >>
> >> I just need to know how many user accts can you have on a Domain
> > Controller
> >> using Windows Server 2003? I know under NT 4.0 the number was kinda
> > small.
> >> Can you point me to any white papers or web links? Thanks for any
input.
> >>
> >>
> >> Clayton
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>

See the link below from Microsoft. They reference that you may want to use
another domain is going to be significantly [whatever that means] over 1-2
million objects. Now an object is a user/group/computer, etc but that still
would allow for a lot more than 5000 users in "native" mode. --- Steve

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../w2kdomar.mspx

Capacity. Should the number of objects in a Domain significantly exceed one
to two million objects, a separate Domain should be considered.


"Clayton Sutton" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Don't really need a "to the point" answer. The topic just came up in a
> meeting at work and someone thought that you could only have about 5,000
> users in AD. However, I know that I have read SOMEWHERE of a few
> companies (or trials) that had a AD of over 1,000,000 users. That's all
> I'm looking for, is somewhere that talks about it.
>
>
> Clayton
>
>
>
> "SA" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> The answer really depends on how much activity each user will cause and
>> how
>> powerful your server is.
>>
>> You will need to be more specific before you'll get a to the point
>> answer,
>> AFACT.
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>> Sven.
>>
>> "Clayton Sutton" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> Hey everyone,
>>>
>>> I just need to know how many user accts can you have on a Domain
>> Controller
>>> using Windows Server 2003? I know under NT 4.0 the number was kinda
>> small.
>>> Can you point me to any white papers or web links? Thanks for any
>>> input.
>>>
>>>
>>> Clayton
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>

Thanks Steven,

That's what I was looking for!


Clayton



"Steven L Umbach" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:efFxnW%(E-Mail Removed)...
> See the link below from Microsoft. They reference that you may want to use
> another domain is going to be significantly [whatever that means] over 1-2
> million objects. Now an object is a user/group/computer, etc but that
> still would allow for a lot more than 5000 users in "native" mode. ---
> Steve
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../w2kdomar.mspx
>
> Capacity. Should the number of objects in a Domain significantly exceed
> one to two million objects, a separate Domain should be considered.
>
>
> "Clayton Sutton" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Don't really need a "to the point" answer. The topic just came up in a
>> meeting at work and someone thought that you could only have about 5,000
>> users in AD. However, I know that I have read SOMEWHERE of a few
>> companies (or trials) that had a AD of over 1,000,000 users. That's all
>> I'm looking for, is somewhere that talks about it.
>>
>>
>> Clayton
>>
>>
>>
>> "SA" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> The answer really depends on how much activity each user will cause and
>>> how
>>> powerful your server is.
>>>
>>> You will need to be more specific before you'll get a to the point
>>> answer,
>>> AFACT.
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>>
>>> Sven.
>>>
>>> "Clayton Sutton" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>> Hey everyone,
>>>>
>>>> I just need to know how many user accts can you have on a Domain
>>> Controller
>>>> using Windows Server 2003? I know under NT 4.0 the number was kinda
>>> small.
>>>> Can you point me to any white papers or web links? Thanks for any
>>>> input.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Clayton
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>

Mind you, all domain accounts are replicated to each DC, plus subset of all
forest accounts are replicated to each GC. In most practical cases (few
domains per forest, and one contains majority of the users) that means that
most of the directory information is stored on every DC.

Storing the domain information isn't a problem, not even querying the
directory. It's KDC, domain logon and replication that load the servers.

--
Svyatoslav Pidgorny, MVP, MCSE
-= F1 is the key =-



"SA" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:u2pyKV#(E-Mail Removed)...
> OK, those are two different questions. You were asking about a computer,
now
> you are asking about an entire directory.
>
> Yes, directories can have millions of objects, no problem
>