On Feb 12, 2008 1:57 PM, yoth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > If i look at the event logs the replication errors state that the tombstone > lifetime (180 days) > has been exceeded and that the last successful replication was in 2006!
Ewww. First, make sure it's not just a false diagnostic. Are there other DCs in the domain? If so, I would suggest checking replication on all of them. If not, examine the domain information on each of the two DCs to see if there's anything obvious that indicates each has a different copy of the domain database. If it is not a false diagnostic -- if that DC really has not replicated since 2006 -- you're probably going to have to force-demote at least one DC. For illustration: Envision a network and domain with just two DCs. They're both fine. Then you cut the network, so neither can talk to each other. But leave them both running. After a certain period of time, each DC will decide the other DC has died and is never coming back. Now you essentially have two different domains, with different data, but the same name. In such a situation, all you can do is pick one DC to keep, and force-demote the other one. There's no way to "merge" the divergent domain databases. Force demotion essentially causes the DC being demoted to just discard its domain database. Any Active Directory changes that only made it to that DC's database will be lost. So you have to decide which of those DCs you want to keep, and force-demote the other one. Google for "DCPROMO /forceremoval" and "active directory metadata cleanup" (both without the quotes) to learn more about this whole procedure. Given that the DC in question was also an Exchange server... I don't know how that will effect things. You may want to just call Microsoft Product Support Services if you've never done this before. Or even if you have. -- Ben ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
