What are some considerations if setting Directory and Resource Administrator (DRA) to manage a large (NETIQKB41484)

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What are some considerations if setting Directory and Resource Administrator (DRA) to manage a large number of member servers?

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Directory and Resource Administrator 6.x

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Directory and Resource Administrator 7.x

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Directory and Resource Administrator (DRA) can be configured to manage not only domains but workstations and servers as well.  If a large number of systems are configured to be managed by DRA, the below issues should be considered:

• Licensing:  DRA is licensed by the number of managed users.  When a system is configured to be managed by DRA, all local user accounts on that system are counted toward DRA licensing.  A DRA license will need to be installed that is larger than the combination of all managed domain(s) accounts plus the local accounts on all managed workstations and servers.
• Domain Cache Refresh:   When a system is set up for management, DRA treats this system as a domain by itself and runs the Domain Cache Refresh (DCR) against the domain.  By default, this cache refresh process runs every 4 hours and checks for new domain controllers, new or deleted trusts, etc..  If the system is unavailable, or doesn't respond in a timely manner, the cache refresh is rescheduled for 1 hour later.  With thousands of managed systems it is very likely than many will be unavailable.  The DRA server can become burdened with trying to keep up with the DCR schedules for many managed systems.  Configuring the DRA server to run the DCR at an interval of once a day instead of every 4 hours is recommended.
• Account Cache Refresh:  Each managed system is treated as a managed domain and hence an Account Cache Refresh must be run against this machine.  The larger number of Account Cache Refreshes can have a negative impact to overall performance of DRA.
  

Formerly known as NETIQKB41484