Let's Support..... "Sharing knowledge to the world": How to monitor replication between sites?

Hi Friends,

In the previous posts i discussed about Active Directory Replication. In this post i wan to talk about monitoring the replication traffic between AD Sites.

Active Directory database is made up of 3 naming contexts or partitions.

1. Schema Partition :

The schema container defines the objects (such as users) and attributes (such as telephone numbers) that can be created in the Active Directory, and the rules for creating and manipulating them. Schema information (which attributes are mandatory for object creation, what additional attributes can be set, and what attribute data types are used) is replicated to all domain controllers to ensure that objects are created and manipulated in accordance with the rules.

2. Configuration Partition :

The configuration container includes information about the Active Directory as a whole—what domains exist, what sites are available, what domain controllers are running in the particular sites and domains, and what additional services are offered. All enterprise domain controllers need this information to make operational decisions (such as choosing replication partners) so it is replicated to all of them.

3. Domain Partition :

A domain naming context holds objects such as users, groups, computers, and organizational units. A full domain naming context replica contains a read-write replica of all information in the domain—all objects and attributes. A domain controller holds a full replica of its domain naming context. A partial domain naming context replica contains a read-only subset of the information in the domain—all objects, but only selected attributes. A domain controller that's a global catalog (GC) server contains a partial replica of every other domain in the forest (and a full replica of its own domain.)

There are some specific tools developed by Microsoft to Initiate, Monitor and Troubleshoot the replication Traffic.

replmon - is a GUI tool, used to monitor replication in the partition level, you can run it from Windows Resource Kit Tools / Windows Support Tools.
repadmin - is a command line utility to initiate replication, find replicas, create site links etc, you can run it from Windows Resource Kit Tools / Windows Support Tools.
dcdiag – is a command line utility to diagnose communication problems between dc’s (sites)
netdiag – is a command line utility to diagnose network problems in a domain environment.