Running ADAM on Windows XP Professional

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003 R2

Running ADAM on Windows XP Professional

In addition to running Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) on domain controllers, member servers, or workgroup servers running Windows Server 2003, you can also run ADAM on computers running Windows XP Professional. Running ADAM on Windows XP Professional introduces some functional considerations, as described in this topic.

Using ADAM on Windows XP Professional as a personal data store

For use on computers running Windows XP Professional, ADAM has been designed primarily as a personal data store. It is recommended that you run ADAM on Windows Server 2003 if you need scalability to support a growing number of simultaneously connected clients or if you intend to use ADAM on a centralized directory server.

Running ADAM on Windows XP Professional in a workgroup

When you install ADAM on a computer running Windows XP Professional that is joined to a workgroup, you must set the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\forceguest to 0. (The default is 1.) Otherwise, users connecting to ADAM over the network are forced to a security context of Guest, and binds to ADAM fail. For more information, see Enable binding to ADAM instances running on Windows XP Professional computers joined to a workgroup.

Summary of functional considerations when running ADAM on Windows XP Professional

The following table summarizes all other functional considerations related to running ADAM on Windows XP Professional.

ADAM feature Windows Server 2003 Windows XP Professional

Support for multiple processors

Supported.

Not supported. When multiple-processor computers are present, ADAM uses only one process at a time to prevent resource monopolization.

Maximum cache value

No limit.

Limited to one half of physical RAM.

Data and log file locations

Data and log files can reside on different drives.

Data and log files must reside on the same drive.

Password policies

Supported.

Not supported.

Auditing

Supported. For more information, see Administering an ADAM instance.

Not supported.

ADAM service account requirements

See Selecting an ADAM service account.

See Selecting an ADAM service account.

Stopping and restarting an ADAM instance

An ADAM instance can be stopped and then restarted immediately.

If a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) client is connected when you shut down the ADAM instance, you may need to wait as long as two minutes before restarting the ADAM instance. This time is required to allow any existing connections to clear.

Backing up ADAM

Multiple ADAM instances running on the same computer can be backed up simultaneously.

For computers running multiple ADAM instances, only one ADAM instance can be backed up at a time.

Full ADSI functionality

No hotfixes are required.

For complete Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI) functionality with Windows XP Professional, you must install hotfix 817583. For more information about this hotfix, see article 817583 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

For information about general ADAM requirements, see ADAM requirements.