AD Site Replication

[Eric Hetzel]

I have my firewalls correctly configured for site to site
AD replication. I beleive the dc in the remote site has
been off line for 90 days and tombstoned. How can I verify
this?

I was told by a consultant to demote the remote dc, change
the name and then promote it to dc again. When I run
dcpromo I get this error:
The operation failed because:
Failed finding a suitable domain controller for the domain
xxx.com
The specified domain either does not exist or could not be
contacted.

 

[Tim Hines [MSFT]]

You can determine when the last successful replication occurred by running
repadmin /showreps. Demoting the DC would be bad if the DC has not
replicated in over 90 days because the tombstone lifetime has passed. If
you demote the DC then it will attempt to replicate off any changes that
have not been replicated.
It would be better to forcefully demote the DC and perform a metadata
cleanup. The error the you see when you try to demote the server indicates
a DNS problem. You may be experiencing a DNS Islanding effect. The
articles below should be useful.


332199 Using the DCPROMO /FORCEREMOVAL Command to Force the Demotion of
Active http://support.microsoft.com/?id=332199
216498 HOW TO: Remove Data in Active Directory After an Unsuccessful Domain
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=216498
275278 DNS Server Becomes an Island When a Domain Controller Points to
Itself http://support.microsoft.com/?id=275278


--
Tim Hines, MCSE, MCSA
Windows 2000 Directory Services

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