Extreme load with local password db lookups

[Patrick van Iersel]

Hi,

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.

Best regards,
Patrick.