IdM 6.0 SPE SP1 querying LDAP for changenumbers

Question

We are using IdM 6.0 SPE SP1 to manage creates and updates to a Sun One Directory Server 5.2. In looking at the access logs, we are seeing lots of LDAP queries for cn=changenumbers. What is changenumber being used for? We are not using ActiveSync or any other sync.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Here is a snippet of the access log:
[07/Feb/2007:17:06:20 -0800] conn=154495 op=10 msgId=11 - RESULT err=0 tag=101 nentries=1 etime=0
[07/Feb/2007:17:06:23 -0800] conn=154495 op=11 msgId=12 - SRCH base="cn=changenumbers,ou=system,ou=spe,o=spe.xxx.com" scope=0 filter="(objectClass=*)" attrs=ALL
[07/Feb/2007:17:06:23 -0800] conn=154495 op=11 msgId=12 - RESULT err=0 tag=101 nentries=1 etime=0
[07/Feb/2007:17:06:27 -0800] conn=154495 op=12 msgId=13 - SRCH base="cn=changenumbers,ou=system,ou=spe,o=spe.xxx.com" scope=1 filter="(objectClass=*)" attrs=ALL

Answer 1

Answer courtesy of IDM Engineering:
"Changenumbers" is used for storing the lastMod counters when using Service Provider Edition. Obviously, this entry is read frequently to verify that the cache is up-to-date (i.e. by comparing the lastMod counters in the cache and the entry).
You shouldn't worry about the performance hit. This is a base object search (i.e. it can only return at most 1 entry)