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Event ID 12288 — Database Commit

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Applies To: Windows Server 2008

The Security Accounts Manager (SAM) is a service that is used during the logon process. The SAM maintains user account information, including groups to which a user belongs. The SAM is attempting to write changes to its database.

Event Details

Product: Windows Operating System
ID: 12288
Source: SAM
Version: 6.0
Symbolic Name: SAMMSG_COMMIT_FAILED
Message: SAM failed to write changes to the database. This is most likely due to a memory or disk-space shortage. The SAM database will be restored to an earlier state. Recent changes will be lost. Check the disk-space available and maximum pagefile size setting.

Resolve

Check available disk space and the maximum page file size setting

The Security Accounts Manager (SAM) attempted to save data, but the write attempt failed. Your system root drive may not have enough free disk space on the system drive, and recent changes (such as accounts that were added, deleted, renamed, or had their password reset) may be lost. Ensure that there is enough free disk space on the system drive. In addition, ensure the configuration of the system paging file. Perform the following procedures on the computer that is logging the event to be resolved.

To perform these procedures, you must have membership in Domain Admins, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority.

Ensure that there is enough free disk space on the system drive

To ensure that there is enough free disk space on the system drive:

  1. Open a command prompt as an administrator. To open a command prompt as an administrator, click Start. In Start Search, type Command Prompt. At the top of the Start Menu, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.
  2. At the command prompt, type cd /d %systemroot%, and then press ENTER.
  3. Type dir, and then press ENTER. The last line of output from the command displays the number of bytes that are free, which should be at least 10,024 or more. If there are not enough free bytes reported, remove unnecessary files from the System root drive.

Ensure the configuration of the system paging file

To ensure the configuration of the system paging file:

  1. Open System Properties. To open System Properties, click Start. In Start Search, type sysdm.cpl , and then press ENTER. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.
  2. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
  3. Under Performance, click Settings.
  4. In the Performace Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
  5. Under Virtual Memory, click Change.
  6. If the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives box is not selected, select it or ensure that there is at least 16 megabytes (MB) of space available for the paging file.
  7. If you made changes, click OK in the Virtual Memory, Performance Options, and System Properties dialog boxes, and then restart the computer when you are prompted. Otherwise, close all open dialog boxes.

Verify

To perform this procedure, you must have membership in Domain Admins, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority.

To verify that the Security Accounts Manager (SAM) exists and that there is enough free disk space to make updates to the database:

Caution: Incorrectly editing the registry might severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data.

  1. Open a command prompt as an administrator. To open a command prompt as an administrator, click Start. In Start Search, type Command Prompt. At the top of the Start Menu, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.
  2. At the command prompt, type cd /d %systemroot%\system32\config, and then press ENTER.
  3. Type dir sam, and then press Enter. The command output should display a file named SAM, and there should be at least 10,024 or more free bytes reported in the last line of the output. If there are not enough free bytes reported, remove unnecessary files from the Systemroot drive.
  4. Close the command prompt.
  5. Open Registry Editor. To open Registry Editor, click Start. In Start Search, type regedit, and then press ENTER. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.
  6. Expand the registry path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM, and ensure that there is a SAM registry key that is subordinate to that registry path. If the key is not present, restart the computer.

Database Commit

Active Directory