W2K Active Direcotry Replication Problem

It sounds like you may be using a master domain model where domain a is your master. Domains b and c are your resource domains. My guess, from what you say, is that domains b and c trust each other and they trust domain a, but domain a does not trust domains b or c.
If this is the case you will need to set up a trust relationship so domain a trusts both domains b and c in order to replicate domain a from b and c.

The previous answer is a problem because you don't have to setup trust relationships with Windows 2000. You automatically have two-way kerberos transitive trusts between your domains. Are your domains setup at different physical locations (differentsubnets)? You may need to go into the Sites and Services utility and set up your additional sites for your other controllers. I would then make them replication partners. You can set a cost of replication based on their link speeds. Lower cost for higher speed links and higher cost for lower speed links (i.e. you link a to b to c to a; your 'a to a' link is 56k and your 'a to b' and 'a to c' are T1's. You would want a lower cost for the T1's and higher for the 56k.)

If you are having AD problems, one of the best books I have is 'Windows 2000 Active Directory' by Oreilly Press. Another good introductory book is 'Active Directory for Dummies' (and no, its not an insult.) Good luck and let us know how you do.

Do all of the domains have Windows 2000 Domain Controllers that replaced the PDC in each? If not, the implicit two-way transitive trusts are not available. Each must have Win2K DC's. Otherwise, the trusts act just like NT 4.0 trusts.

Next, verify the trusts in Active Directory Domains and Trusts.

In windows 2000 connection objects are unidirectional, meaning that data only travels in one direction thru the connection object. I believe that you need to add another connection object from domain C and/or B to domain A. You must ensure that atleast one domain has a connection object with domain A ( going in the correct direction). If atleast on domain can replicate with domain A then the other domain should get the updates thru transitive replicaiton.

Windows 2000 Accelerated (Exam Prep)
page 231.

Hope this helps

Lance Cockcroft

Umm.. this sounds like a strange one, but I'll have a go.

The first thing I'm trying to get my head around is why you want the domains to replicate to each other - I am currently training a Designing a Directory Services Infrastructure course for Microsoft as I write this mail - and inter domain replication ONLY occurs for the physical structures of AD - any users that you create in Domain a WILL NOT be replicated to domain C or B, other than as part of Global Catalog replication, but they will not appear in AD Users and Computers.

Other things to check are that you created appropriate subnet objects for your sites, and once these were created that you actually moved your server objects from the Default-first-site-name site to the new sites that you created. The KCC will only create replication objects for machines that actually have the ability to replicate - without moving your server objects to the correct sites and having a valid site link in place you will NOT get any connection objects under NTDS settings.

If you have done this then check that your site link is actually available for replication - open the site link schedule to be available at all times until you get some replication. To check that replication istaking place install the resource kit utilities from the Win2K server cd and use the replication monitor tool that MS so kindly provide.

If all else fails then it could be a DNS based issue. Check that all your machines are connecting to the sameDNS server and that it supports both dynamic updates and SRV records AND that they are using the correct DNS suffix for the connection.

Richard Kelly

I would like to suggest you to read a Microsoft Knowledge article, the ID is Q232538 about Unsuccessful Replication Without Partner Listed.

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q232/5/38.ASP.

Hoping this may help.

More Information. SP1 applied to every DC.
For connections that do exsist under NTDS Settings, I've tried manual replication and they work. Have check DNS and it's configuration and I do have all proper records and settings. No errors in Event log just good ones.

There is a useful tool from NetIQ at
http://www.netiq.com/products/operations/adcheck.asp
that I found useful if trouble shooting replication problems. Also there is the netdiag tool from Microsoft (support tools or Resource Kit).

Jim Swift

I'm not at all sure that this will help, but the nearest thing which I have seen to this is when we have had to reghost the root domain controller. It came back and all active directory items appeared to be in place but quite a lot refused to work.

We ended up reinstalling from scratch which was fine in our case but won't suit you. You could try checking the fsmo roles, particularly the infrastructure master.

Repadmin.exe is a command-line tool from the Microsoft Windows 2000 Resource Kit that is included with the Support tools, which you can install from the Support\Tools folder of the Windows 2000 Server or Professional CD-ROM. You can use this tool tomanually create a replication link that Windows 2000 will use to replicate over. In the absence of an NTDS Settings object for a particular replication partner in the Configuration partition of Active Directory, you can use Repadmin to specify the data that would otherwise be retrieved automatically by the KCC.
To view the entire article from Microsoft, go to:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q232/5/38.asp
This sounds like what you need, however I may be wrong.
Good luck,
Pat