Kerberos Database Size

[Ben Staffin]

* Steve Edgar <se10 at cornell.edu> [2005-01-20 12:55] wibbled:
> Does anyone know how large a Kerberos database on a single KDC can get 
> before performance becomes an issue?  For example, would a Kerberos 
> database be able to handle 750,000 principals?  1,000,000 principals?  
> Hardware is a major factor, but assuming the KDC is on a "relatively 
> fast" hardware configuration, are there any other limiting factors?

I know this doesn't specifically answer the question, but at this site
we have on the order of 200,000 principals in the database, and the KDCs
are a pair of 233mhz PowerPC 604e machines (IBM 7043/140).  They handle
the load without any trouble at all, even during class registration days
when dozens of tickets are being issued per second.

I'm not sure how far these particular systems could scale, but I imagine
that more recent hardware could handle an extremely large number of
principals before slowing down measurably.

-- 
/--
| Ben Staffin
  perpetual nerd  |
                --/