Q: Why do I received Error 3013, "The redirector has timed out to
SERVERNAME," in my System Log?
Possible causes are that the server you are trying to connect to is
unavailable, very busy, or too far away to respond before the redirector timed
out; the physical network cable is unavailable or very busy; or the network has
a bottleneck.
The first step in troubleshooting such a problem is to verify that network
protocol communication is functioning properly. With TCP/IP, you can use the
ping utility to determine response time and Time to Live (TTL) and the tracert
utility to evaluate specific routing characteristics.
After you verify the network protocol communication, you can test the
connections between the client and the server. You can perform a network trace
of the packets on the network to locate the root of the problem (look at the
amount of time it takes for the server to respond to the workstation). You can
also use Perfmon on the server (see the Windows NT Resource Kit, Volume
4, Chapter 7 to see how to detect network bottlenecks). You can try undoing any
recent changes in network configuration. Also, if you were connecting to Machine
B from Machine A, try connecting to Machine A from Machine B. Or you can have
another client try to connect to the same server to see whether both redirectors
have the same problem connecting.
After exhausting all troubleshooting options, you can try to increase the
sesstimeout Registry parameter under
hkey_local_machine\system\currentcontrolset\services\lanmanworkstation\parameters.
sesstimeout specifies the maximum time the redirector lets a short-term
operation be outstanding. The redirector uses this value to establish the extra
time to wait for the Server Message Block (SMB) response. You can roughly
calculate the time that the redirector actually waits for a server to respond to
an SMB. The following formula will produce that value.
[(SMBsize + size of data sent or received) / bytes per second] +
sesstimeout
This systemwide parameter applies to all protocols, including TCP/IP.
However, sesstimeout doesn't apply to certain types of SMBs such as transaction
commands that have their own timeout variable in the SMB.
Q: What are the hardware recommendations for a domain controller?
The following recommendations are for systems that function only as logon
servers. If the system will run server-based applications or act as a file or
print server, consider the additional resources those processes will require.
Table 1 shows guidelines for selecting a computer for use as a Primary
Domain Controller (PDC) or Backup Domain Controller (BDC). For information on
PDCs and BDCs, see Ed Tittel and Mary Madden, "PDCs, BDCs, and
Availability," on page 75.
Q: How many user accounts can a domain support?
A domain consists of built-in and custom user accounts, machine accounts,
and group accounts. Each object occupies space in the SAM file. The practical
limit for the size of the SAM file depends on the type of computer processor and
amount of memory available in the machine that administers the domain. Microsoft
has successfully tested SAM files in excess of 40MB and recommends 40MB as the
upper limit (larger SAM files can take several minutes to load into memory for
administration purposes). Different types of objects require different amounts
of space in the SAM file. Table 2 shows examples of how to distribute objects in
one domain. For more information on domain planning, refer to http://www.
microsoft.com/backoffice
or the NT Server Forum on the Microsoft Network (GO WORD: MSNTS).
[Editor's Note: For more on these issues, see Windows NT Magazine
technical support forums at http://www.winntmag.com, Microsoft TechNet,
CompuServe's WINNT forum, America Online's Windows NT area, The Microsoft
Network, and Microsoft's Internet servers--http://www.microsoft.com and
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com. The Microsoft Knowledge Base is at
http://198.105.232.4:80/isapi/fts.dll?db=KB_winnt&qu=&qu=nt&mh=20.]