pspng evoking NPE against user provisioning

I am seeing the following looping problem with pspng.  This is the same config I have been running with 2.3 (up to p21) which was working fine.  This blocks pspng from continuing with this provisioner.

daemon_1         | 2018-09-14T01:38:03.337834900Z grouper-api;grouper_error.log;dev;build-2;2018-09-13 21:38:03,337: [DefaultQuartzScheduler_Worker-4] ERROR GrouperLoaderJob.execute(348) -  - Error running up job

daemon_1         | 2018-09-14T01:38:03.337901300Z java.lang.RuntimeException: Error in loader job: null, check logs: Error: java.lang.NullPointerException

daemon_1         | 2018-09-14T01:38:03.337917200Z at edu.internet2.middleware.grouper.pspng.LdapProvisioner.cacheGroup(LdapProvisioner.java:509)

daemon_1         | 2018-09-14T01:38:03.337930200Z at edu.internet2.middleware.grouper.pspng.LdapProvisioner.cacheGroup(LdapProvisioner.java:50)

daemon_1         | 2018-09-14T01:38:03.339443800Z at edu.internet2.middleware.grouper.pspng.Provisioner.prepareGroupCache(Provisioner.java:795)

daemon_1         | 2018-09-14T01:38:03.339534300Z at edu.internet2.middleware.grouper.pspng.Provisioner.startProvisioningBatch(Provisioner.java:514)

daemon_1         | 2018-09-14T01:38:03.342327900Z at edu.internet2.middleware.grouper.pspng.Provisioner.provisionBatchOfItems(Provisioner.java:1505)

daemon_1         | 2018-09-14T01:38:03.342370000Z at edu.internet2.middleware.grouper.pspng.PspChangelogConsumerShim.processChangeLogEntries(PspChangelogConsumerShim.java:71)

daemon_1         | 2018-09-14T01:38:03.343211500Z at edu.internet2.middleware.grouper.changeLog.ChangeLogHelper.processRecords(ChangeLogHelper.java:245)

daemon_1         | 2018-09-14T01:38:03.343235400Z at edu.internet2.middleware.grouper.app.loader.GrouperLoaderType$5.runJob(GrouperLoaderType.java:638)

daemon_1         | 2018-09-14T01:38:03.343249700Z at edu.internet2.middleware.grouper.app.loader.GrouperLoaderJob.runJob(GrouperLoaderJob.java:465)

daemon_1         | 2018-09-14T01:38:03.343262200Z at edu.internet2.middleware.grouper.app.loader.GrouperLoaderJob.execute(GrouperLoaderJob.java:345)

daemon_1         | 2018-09-14T01:38:03.343274300Z at org.quartz.core.JobRunShell.run(JobRunShell.java:202)

daemon_1         | 2018-09-14T01:38:03.343313600Z at org.quartz.simpl.SimpleThreadPool$WorkerThread.run(SimpleThreadPool.java:573)

daemon_1         | 2018-09-14T01:38:03.343326100Z Did not get all the way through the batch! -1 != 1302591

daemon_1         | 2018-09-14T01:38:03.343338200Z at edu.internet2.middleware.grouper.app.loader.GrouperLoaderJob.runJob(GrouperLoaderJob.java:474)

daemon_1         | 2018-09-14T01:38:03.343350400Z at edu.internet2.middleware.grouper.app.loader.GrouperLoaderJob.execute(GrouperLoaderJob.java:345)

daemon_1         | 2018-09-14T01:38:03.343362600Z at org.quartz.core.JobRunShell.run(JobRunShell.java:202)

daemon_1         | 2018-09-14T01:38:03.343374600Z at org.quartz.simpl.SimpleThreadPool$WorkerThread.run(SimpleThreadPool.java:573)