XADM: High Dsmain.exe CPU Usage When Populating Address Book Views (251054)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Exchange Server 5.0
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5
This article was previously published under Q251054

SYMPTOMS

If you create an Address Book view with multilevel containers or if it is grouped on an single attribute that has thousands of different sort criteria, the directory service (or Dsamain.exe) CPU usage on many if not all the servers in your site may be extremely high. When the Dsamain process attempts to build the new Address Book view based upon your defined criteria and in turn, replicates these changes across your Exchange Server organization, high Dsamain.exe CPU symptoms may also be experienced at those sites. Because of the high CPU usage, you may experience slow connections, slow client logon times, or there may be slow connections to your Exchange Server computers when you are using the Exchange Server Administrator program. The global address list may not be visible in the Administrator program or from the Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Exchange client.

CAUSE

This behavior can occur because the View Consistency Checker (VCC) process, which is responsible for populating the Address Book view, runs every five minutes.

MORE INFORMATION

  • If you want the Address Book view that is being replicated, take no action and allow the replication to finish.
  • If you do not want the Address Book view that is being replicated:
    1. Follow the steps outlined in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

      255673 XADM: Unwanted Replication of Address Book Views

    2. Make sure that only one administrator makes changes to the Address Book view. Anyone in the organization who has Modify permissions to a site-naming context can make changes to the Address Book view. If you make sure that only one administrator can make changes to the Address Book view, you ensure that the changes that you make are not deleted by more current changes that are replicating throughout your organization.
    3. In the Exchange Server Administrator program, set the first grouping of the Address Book view that you want to remove to a custom attribute that is not being used. Do this at every level in the Address Book view to make the Address Book view appear to the VCC as if it has no containers, so that the VCC stops populating the Address Book view throughout the organization.
    4. Immediately make multiple modifications to the Administrative Note on the General tab of the Address Book view to increase the Object-Version number on the Address Book view. Click Apply each time that you make a change.
    5. Allow the Address Book view changes to replicate throughout every site in the organization. This takes some time, depending on the size of the organization, the speed of the links, and the replication schedule times. Replication must be working correctly throughout the entire organization for the view to be completely deleted.
For additional information about this fix, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

248398 XADM: Restricting Permission to Address Book Views

For additional information about making changes to and deleting Address Book views, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

180141 XADM: Recurring Address Book Views in Exchange Server

255673 XADM: Unwanted Replication of Address Book Views

For additional information about the behavior described in this article, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

248398 XADM: Restricting Permission to Address Book Views

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:4/21/2005
Keywords:kbprb KB251054
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