User lookups intermittently fail with nscd

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

When nscd is enabled and the system is heavily loaded, user lookups may intermittantly fail without tuning nscd. This can manifest as cronjobs failing:

Apr 18 00:01:01 localhost crond[25496]: User not known to the
  underlying authentication module
Apr 18 00:01:01 localhost crond[25496]: CRON (mml) ERROR: failed to   open PAM security session: Success
Apr 18 00:01:01 localhost crond[25496]: CRON (mml) ERROR: cannot set security context 

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3
  • Users authenticated via NIS
  • NSCD enabled
  • Heavily-loaded systems

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