Provisioning Reference Guide › Advanced Configuration Options › Domain Configuration › Search Parameters › Search Size Limit

Search Size Limit

Default Value: 0 (unlimited)

Description: The maximum number of entries that are returned by the Provisioning Server in a search request. The effective size limit for a search is the smallest of this value, the SLAPD size limit parameter, and the client-provided size limit operation parameter.

Limiting the number of entries returned in searches is important for good interactive performance of the Provisioning Server. If the effective size limit is too large, poorly formed search requests may return long lists of global users, accounts, or other objects that are not easy for administrators to work with. Conversely, if the effective size limit is too small, it may limit the administrator's ability to browse provisioning roles or other objects whose number is more moderate than that of global users or accounts.

There are three ways to control the effective size limit of a search request:

• The SLAPD sizelimit parameter in the following files:

  PSHOME\Data\im_ps.conf
  PSHOME\Data\im_ccs.conf
  

  This value is set to 0 (unlimited) by default and controls all LDAP servers running in the Provisioning and Provisioning Connector server services, respectively. There should be no need to change this parameter. Doing so would limit operations like exploration that perform searches of accounts in managed directories and relies on being able to receive all accounts present in a single container in a single search request.

• The Domain Configuration parameter Search Size Limit

  This value is also set to 0 (unlimited) by default. It controls the maximum number of entries that are returned to provisioning clients in a single search request. If you set this to a non-zero value (500), this will prevent any client from being able to receive more than 500 entries from the Provisioning Server in a search request.

  Set this parameter only if you can be sure that no clients require receiving more than this number of entries from any search.

  You should leave the Search Size Limit configuration parameter as 0 (unlimited) on any interactive or mixed-use Provisioning Server. If you have an environment where certain Provisioning Servers are dedicated to interactive use and other Provisioning Servers are available for batch activity, you may want to set the Search Size Limit from 500 through 1000 on the interactive servers only. Use the Add Specialization menu item to set a server-specific Domain Configuration parameter.

• The Provisioning Manager's size limit preference setting

  To change this preference, select File, Preferences, click the Search tab, and change the value in the Limit on Returned Items for a Search field.

  The Provisioning Manager preset return limit is 500. Each user can increase or decrease this preference, but increasing the value above the server's Search Size Limit value has no effect because the server's effective size limit is the smallest of the three size limit controls.

If a search operation encounters a search-limit failure, assuming that you enabled the retrieval of partial results, in some cases the number of items that are displayed may be different than the actual search limit because a single search operation (from the perspective of the user) might require several searches (from the perspective of the Provisioning Server).

Depending on how a client combines the results of the multiple search operations (for example, through a union or intersection) when displaying the results, the net display may contain more or fewer items than the search-limit. In all cases, an error message is displayed informing you that the results were truncated due to the search limits.