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Managing the SID-to-name map cache

CIFS frequently is required to map security identifiers (SIDs) to user and group names and vice versa for user authentication, quota management, console command processing, and various RPC responses. The SID-to-name map cache contains entries that map SIDs to pre-Windows 2000 user and group names.

About this task

The storage system obtains the SID-to-name mapping information by querying the domain controller. To minimize multiple lookups of the same names, SID-to-name information received from the domain controller is saved in the SID-to-name map cache on the storage system.

The SID-to-name map cache is enabled on the storage system by default. You can manually control the cache by changing the lifetime of the entries, clearing entries, or turning SID-to-name map caching off or on. The cache persists if CIFS is terminated or restarted, but it does not persist across a reboot or a takeover and giveback.

When the storage system requires SID-to-name mapping information, it first looks for a matching entry in the SID-to-name map cache. If a matching entry is not found or if an expired matching entry is found, the storage system queries the appropriate domain controller for current mapping information. If the domain controller is not available, an expired mapping entry might be used by the storage system.

Here are the main benefits of using the SID-to-name map cache for name lookup: