Event Details

Summary

DFS Replication encountered an error while communicating with a replication partner during replication. DFS Replication will retry replication.

Causes

An unhealthy state of this monitor is caused by communication errors during replication. Communication errors can occur for the following reasons:

• General network connectivity issues
• DNS errors
• Firewall settings
• Lack of software updates on replication partners

Resolutions

Test basic network connectivity

To test network connectivity with the affected server, use the following procedure:

1. Open a command prompt window and then use the ping command to check basic network connectivity.
   If the ping command fails, it is likely that the server is not running, or has network problems that require local access to resolve. If ping is blocked in your network environment, skip this step.
2. If the ping command is successful, test the server’s registration in DNS by using the nslookup command.
   If the nslookup command fails, there is a problem with DNS. Check the DNS server health or contact the DNS server administrator.
3. If the nslookup command succeeds, DNS is working properly.

Note: For more information about troubleshooting network issues, see article 325487 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=46059).

Check Firewall settings

If a firewall has been configured between replication partners, ensure that it is not blocking RPC communication. DFS Replication depends on RPC for communication. DFS Replication uses the RPC Endpoint Mapper (port 135) and a randomly assigned dynamic port mand is successful, test the server’s registration in DNS by using the nslookup command.
If the nslookup command fails, there is a problem with DNS. Check the DNS server health or contact the DNS server administrator.

Note: For more information about troubleshooting network issues, see article 325487 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=46059).

Check Firewall settings

If a firewall has been con in the range of 49152 through 65535 for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008, or in the range of 1025 through 5000 for Windows Server 2003 R2.

You can use the Dfsrdiag command-line tool to specify a static port instead of the dynamic port. For more information about how to specify the RPC Endpoint Mapper, see article 154596 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73991). For more information about dynamic port usage in Windows Server 2008, see article 929851 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=187092).

Install the latest updates

Install the latest service pack and updates on all members of the replication group.

Verification

To manually confirm that replication is healthy, run a propagation test on the affected folder by using DFS Management or the following commands where <ReplicationGroup> is the name of the replication group and <ReplicatedFolder> is the name of the replicated folder:

dfsrdiag propagationtest /rgname:"<ReplicationGroup>" /rfname:"<ReplicatedFolder>" /testfilename:DFS-RTestFile.xml

dfsrdiag propagationreport /rgname:"<ReplicationGroup>" /rfname:"<ReplicatedFolder>" /testfilename:DFS-RTestFile.xml /reportfilename:c:\DFS-R_Report.xml

See Also

• Knowledge Base article 832017, "Service overview and network port requirements for the Windows Server system" (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=65336)
• Current Hotfixes for Distributed File System (DFS) technologies in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=140177)