Recommended Active Directory database size   

Good Morning,
I have been tasked with trying to add photos to Active Directory.  I was 
successful in doing this and the photos are 35KB.  I have been trying to find 
a standard size that an AD domain can grow to and what documentation there is 
on this.  I don't want to add 2100 photos and then have AD and our network 
crash on us.

If someone could please guide me to the right location, it would be greatly 
appreciated.
Thanks!

date: Wed, 11 Jun 2008 08:15:01 -0700   author:   tmpotvin

Re: Recommended Active Directory database size   

"tmpotvin"  wrote in message 
news:F3B53F64-D35E-46A5-8D29-573EBC3890DB@microsoft.com...
> Good Morning,
> I have been tasked with trying to add photos to Active Directory.  I was
> successful in doing this and the photos are 35KB.  I have been trying to 
> find
> a standard size that an AD domain can grow to and what documentation there 
> is
> on this.  I don't want to add 2100 photos and then have AD and our network
> crash on us.
>
> If someone could please guide me to the right location, it would be 
> greatly
> appreciated.
> Thanks!

This adds a lot to AD, and you would need to design an app to use it. Better 
to keep the images somewhere else: image files in a folder, in an SQL Server 
database, or even in ADAM. You could save url's or UNC paths to the images 
in AD.

I have seen references to the Picture attribute (LDAP Display Name 
"thumbnailPhoto"), although it is not recommended. See this link:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/292029

-- 
Richard Mueller
MVP Directory Services
Hilltop Lab - http://www.rlmueller.net
--

date: Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:18:09 -0500   author:   Richard Mueller [MVP]

Re: Recommended Active Directory database size   

Thanks for the quick reply!

We're actually using an app that we purchased that helped us keep user 
information up to date in Exchange without giving users full blown access to 
their profiles.  Their recent update included the option to add photos, so 
this is why I was asking.

I've contacted the vendor to see if they have another way of adding photos 
instead of straight in to the AD database.  This way there could be a link 
put somewhere in AD and that will point to the photo location whether it's 
just sitting on a share or in a DB.

If there are any other mechanisms that anyone can think of, please let me 
know, but this gives me information that I can share with our teams as to why 
it's proably not a good idea to put the photos in the AD DB.

"Richard Mueller [MVP]" wrote:

> 
> "tmpotvin"  wrote in message 
> news:F3B53F64-D35E-46A5-8D29-573EBC3890DB@microsoft.com...
> > Good Morning,
> > I have been tasked with trying to add photos to Active Directory.  I was
> > successful in doing this and the photos are 35KB.  I have been trying to 
> > find
> > a standard size that an AD domain can grow to and what documentation there 
> > is
> > on this.  I don't want to add 2100 photos and then have AD and our network
> > crash on us.
> >
> > If someone could please guide me to the right location, it would be 
> > greatly
> > appreciated.
> > Thanks!
> 
> This adds a lot to AD, and you would need to design an app to use it. Better 
> to keep the images somewhere else: image files in a folder, in an SQL Server 
> database, or even in ADAM. You could save url's or UNC paths to the images 
> in AD.
> 
> I have seen references to the Picture attribute (LDAP Display Name 
> "thumbnailPhoto"), although it is not recommended. See this link:
> 
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/292029
> 
> -- 
> Richard Mueller
> MVP Directory Services
> Hilltop Lab - http://www.rlmueller.net
> -- 
> 
> 
>

date: Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:37:07 -0700   author:   tmpotvin