General Tuning Parameters for Client Computers

Performance Tuning for Active Directory Servers

Increase address space by using 64-bit processors.

For running Active Directory, 64-bit processors are preferred. Their large address space makes it possible to equip the server with enough RAM to cache all or most of the Active Directory database in memory. It also provides room for expansion to add RAM if the database size grows. For more information, see “Active Directory Performance for 64-bit Versions of Windows Server 2003” "Resources."

Increase user-mode address space on 32-bit x86 servers.

On servers that have 32-bit x86 processors, use the IncreaseUserVA boot option to increase user-mode address space. This increases how much virtual address space is available to Active Directory and lets Active Directory improve its caching. This option can be set by using the bcdedit tool as follows:

bcdedit /set IncreaseUserVA 3072

Use an appropriate amount of RAM.

Active Directory uses the server’s RAM to cache as much of the directory database as possible. This reduces disk access and improves performance. Unlike Windows 2000, the Active Directory cache in Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 is permitted to grow. However, it is still limited by the virtual address space and how much physical RAM is on the server.

To determine whether more RAM is needed for the server, monitor the percentage of Active Directory operations that are being satisfied from the cache by using the Reliability and Performance Monitor. Examine the lsass.exe instance (for Active Directory Domain Services) or Directory instance (for Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services) of the Database\Database Cache % Hit performance counter. A low value indicates that many operations are not being satisfied from the cache. Adding more RAM might improve the cache hit rate and the performance of Active Directory. You should examine the counter after Active Directory has been running for some time under a typical workload. The cache starts out empty when the Active Directory service is restarted or the machine is rebooted, so the initial hit rate is low.

The use of the Database Cache % Hit counter is the preferred way to assess how much RAM a server needs. Or, a guideline is that when the RAM on a server is twice the physical size of the Active Directory database on disk, it likely gives sufficient room for caching the entire database in memory. However, in many scenarios this is an overestimation because the actual part of the database frequently used is only a fraction of the entire database.

Use a good disk I/O subsystem.

Ideally, the server is equipped with sufficient RAM to be able to cache the “hot” parts of the database entirely in memory. However, the on-disk database must still be accessed to initially populate the memory cache, when it accesses uncached parts of the database and when it writes updates to the directory. Therefore, appropriate selection of storage is also important to Active Directory performance.

We recommend that the Active Directory database folder be located on a physical volume that is separate from the Active Directory log file folder. In the Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services installation wizard, these are known as data files and data recovery files. Both folders should be on a physical volume that is separate from the operating system volume. The use of drives that support command queuing, especially SCSI or Serial Attached SCSI, might also improve performance.