Problem: How to Force Replication in AD with incomplete DC replicating Partners

Problem: How to Force Replication in AD with incomplete DC replicating Partners

AD problem in Windows 2003.
Q. How do you force replication between DCs that are all listed in Sites and Services, but only partial lists in each DC’s NTDS i.e. no one DC’s NTDS listing has all of the DCs listed, but there are at least 2 DCs listed in each NTDS as replication partners.
I have 4 DCs (DC1 and DC2) and 2 of them resolve DNS (NS1 and NS2)
i.e. in Sites and Services, under each DC’s NTDS are listed the following:
DC1 <>NS2
DC2
DC2 <> DC1
NS1
NS1 <>DC2
NS2
NS2 <>DC1
NS1

Running replmon shows NS1 and DC1 are not replicating properly and NS2 and DC2 not replicating properly. Toplogy confirms this.

Trying command line: repadmin /syncall /force etc. gives the following error:
DsReplicaSync() failed with status 8452 (0x2104):
The naming context is in the process of being removed or is not replicated from the specified server.

Tried ntdsutil metadata cleanup but there was nothing to do

How does one fix this?


Solution: How to Force Replication in AD with incomplete DC replicating Partners

You might be missing the host A records of the new or rebuilt server.

A quick way to tell is DCdiag.

A quick way to fix is

Run DCdiag /fix.DNS
Go to the command prompt, and run ipconfig /registerDNS
Stop netlogon service
Start netlon service.

Then try to force replicate.