samba - Oct 2024 - Inquiry on Object and Concurrency Limitations in Samba4 for High-Volume LDAP/LDAPS Environments

Dear Kees,

Thank you for the information and for the link to Tranquil IT?s site. We
had already reviewed that documentation, and while it?s helpful in
understanding Samba4 server sizing, our inquiry is slightly more specific.

What we need to know is if there are defined limits in Samba4 regarding the
maximum number of users, computers, and objects that it can efficiently
handle in a production environment. We understand that these limits may
vary depending on server resources (memory, CPU, I/O speed), but we?re
looking for concrete information on whether there are any inherent
restrictions within Samba4 itself, particularly in infrastructures with
more than 20,000 users and over 100,000 total objects.

Any additional experience or reference on these specific limits would be
greatly beneficial, as we are in the process of planning the scalability of
our infrastructure and want to ensure we avoid long-term performance issues.

Thank you in advance for any further insights you can provide.

Kind regards,
Gabriel

El s?b, 26 de oct de 2024, 13:16, Kees van Vloten via samba <
samba at lists.samba.org> escribi?:
>
> Op 26-10-2024 om 17:28 schreef Gabriel via samba:
> > Hi.
> >
> > I am reaching out to request information on the capabilities and
> potential
> > limitations of Samba4 in relation to our Active Directory
infrastructure.
> > Given our organization?s extensive use of LDAP/LDAPS, we need specific
> > details regarding:
> >
> >     1.
> >
> >     *Maximum Object Capacity:* Is there a limit to the number of
objects
> >     Samba4 can manage optimally?
> >     2.
> >
> >     *User and Device Limits:* Are there restrictions on the number of
> users
> >     or computers that can be efficiently managed in a production
> environment?
> >     3.
> >
> >     *Concurrency Capabilities:* Does Samba4 have any limitations
> concerning
> >     concurrent queries or the maximum allowed simultaneous
connections?
> >
> > So far, we have not found official documentation addressing these
> specific
> > queries, so we would particularly appreciate input from community
members
> > with relevant experience. We are interested to know if anyone has
> > infrastructure containing over 20,000 users/computers and more than
> 100,000
> > total objects.
> >
> > We greatly appreciate any information you can provide, as it is
essential
> > for planning the scalability of our environment and preventing
> performance
> > issues.
>
> There is some information in the docs at Tranquil IT:
>
>
https://samba.tranquil.it/doc/en/samba_fundamentals/samba_server_dimensionning.html
> <
>
https://samba.tranquil.it/doc/en/samba_fundamentals/samba_server_dimensionning.html#dimensioning-the-memory
> >
>
> They have experience with (very) large environments.
>
> - Kees.
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On 27/10/24 05:34, Gabriel via samba wrote:
> Thank you for the information and for the link to Tranquil IT?s site. We
> had already reviewed that documentation, and while it?s helpful in
> understanding Samba4 server sizing, our inquiry is slightly more specific.
> 
> What we need to know is if there are defined limits in Samba4 regarding the
> maximum number of users, computers, and objects that it can efficiently
> handle in a production environment. We understand that these limits may
> vary depending on server resources (memory, CPU, I/O speed), but we?re
> looking for concrete information on whether there are any inherent
> restrictions within Samba4 itself, particularly in infrastructures with
> more than 20,000 users and over 100,000 total objects.
There aren't really hard-coded limits in Samba AD, but there are various 
counters that use 32 bit integers, so you can't have many more than 4 
billion total objects.

But there are definitely algorithmic barriers that large domains hit. A 
lot depends on structure and usage patterns. Large groups currently 
present challenges. And it seems some third party products have a 
fondness for crippling LDAP queries.

With the TDB database backend, the total size also can't exceed ~4GB. 
How quickly you approach this limit depends on on how you use Samba AD 
-- for example if you are storing user photos in there it will fill 
faster. This 4GB limit is why we have the LMDB backend option.

20k users is certainly not the largest Samba domain I have heard of.

Douglas