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lsass.exe is a security manager for windows (I.E... windows logons and what not)... so it shouldn't be taking up any resources... unless your running a terminal server.... in other cases lsass.exe is a trojan... make sure where the file in running from... the file location should be [root drive]\[windows root]\system32\...<br />
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i would recommend doing some virus scans and what not
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lsass.exe is a security manager for windows (I.E... windows logons and what not)... so it shouldn't be taking up any resources... unless your running a terminal server.... in other cases lsass.exe is a trojan... make sure where the file in running from... the file location should be [root drive]\[windows root]\system32\...

i would recommend doing some virus scans and what not

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You might want to try checking out this blog from MS. &nbsp;It also has some good tips on troubleshooting LSASS.exe high CPU utilization.<br />
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<a href="http://blogs.technet.com/askds/archive/2009/04/16/conficker-causes-lsass-to-consume-cpu-time-on-domain-controllers.aspx" rel="ugc">http://blogs.technet.com/askds/archive/2009/04/16/conficker-causes-lsass-to-consume-cpu-time-on-domain-controllers.aspx</a><br />
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Hopefully your client don't have Confiker.
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You might want to try checking out this blog from MS.  It also has some good tips on troubleshooting LSASS.exe high CPU utilization.

http://blogs.technet.com/askds/archive/2009/04/16/conficker-causes-lsass-to-consume-cpu-time-on-domain-controllers.aspx [http://blogs.technet.com/askds/archive/2009/04/16/conficker-causes-lsass-to-consume-cpu-time-on-domain-controllers.aspx]

Hopefully your client don't have Confiker.

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We have a domain controller that is a DC, GC and print server. We noticed that the CPU usage is very high. It goes up to 100 % then it drops down to 20% then back to 85%...etc. &nbsp;The file that is consuming the most CPU is LSASS.exe. <br />
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Any help would be appriciated.
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We have a domain controller that is a DC, GC and print server. We noticed that the CPU usage is very high. It goes up to 100 % then it drops down to 20% then back to 85%...etc.  The file that is consuming the most CPU is LSASS.exe. 

Any help would be appriciated.

Network Administrator

The Microsoft Server topic includes all of the legacy versions of the operating system, including the Windows NT 3.1, NT 3.5, NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 and Windows Home Server versions.