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Security Identifiers in NT 4.0

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Does anyone know the max. number of SIDS in NT 4.0? A new SID is created for each user/PDC/BDC etc...at some point they will run out. It may be a very long time and it may never happen to anyone, but it can happen.
Thanks
Mike Kovach

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by Member 20761703

You can use the Getsid.exe command-line application included in the Windows NT Resource Kit to determine the SID for a specified user account. Getsid.exe is useful for troubleshooting user authentication problems. You can't, however, change the useraccount SID with Getsid.exe. Use the getsid command as follows:

getsid \\servername accountname \\servername accountname

getsid requires two account names because part of its function is to compare the SIDs of each to determine whether they'rethe same.

by Member 20761703

Considering That A PDC can have 44,000 accounts the sid size should be close to that size per Server you install. I guess it would be based upon the type of doamin model you choose at your sight; Single, Master etc.! For additional information about the SAM size, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Article ID: Q130914
Title: "Number of Users and Groups Affects SAM Size of Domain" and this SID Detail Article below:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/win2000/dguide/chapt-10.asp

by anne.jan.elsinga

[-- Cut from MSDN http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/psdk/winbase/accctrl_38yn.htm --]

A security identifier (SID) is a unique value of variable length used to identify a trustee. Each account has a unique SID issued by an authority, such as a Windows NT/Windows 2000 domain, and stored in a security database.
[-- End cut --]

According the snipet above I think this is not the case. The keyword in this is variable length. So when more SIDs are needed, more will be created.

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