Extreme load with local password db lookups

[Eugene Grosbein]

Jeremy Chadwick wrote:

> > > Here's the situation. We have an web/ftp server with around 74000 users
> > > defined in the local unix password database. On 4.9-stable which it is
> > > running now, there is no noticable load when lookups are done (logins via
> > > ftp, ~user lookups from apache etc.). We want to migrate this system to
> > > 6-stable.
> > > However on 6-STABLE (FreeBSD 6.3-PRERELEASE #0: Wed Dec  5 13:35:05 CET
> > > 2007) these same lookups cause very high load and things slow down to a
> > > crawl.
> > >
> > > Does anybody have an idea what causes this behavior?
> > >
> > > Thanx in advance for any insights.
> >
> > Take a look to your /etc/nsswitch.conf. If you do not use NIS,
> > try to change lines for 'group' and 'passwd' to look like this:
> >
> > group: files
> > passwd: files
> 
> The default value is "compat" on both RELENG_6 and RELENG_7.  I don't
> think switching to "files" will fix his problem (I'll be very surprised
> if it does).

See http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=75855
It seems the regression from RELENG_4 is still here.

There are so many regressions in performance that I still
prefer to invest time to patch bsd.ports.mk to support 4.x
(and have a success, I use fresh ports with 4.x these days)
then upgrade my UP boxes to 6.x and suffer from loss of performaince.

Eugene Grosbein