I had some questions and need some advice regarding recovering from a "dirty shutdown" on both/all of DCs in a domain that are using DFS-R for both the SysVol folder as well as a file share.
Background I am helping a new environment that is experiencing problems where Group Policies are not applying correctly. Upon closer inspection, I learned that DFS-R is not correctly replicating the contents of Sysvol. Setup * 2 Windows Server 2012 Standard (not R2) Domain Controllers at 2008 R2 domain and forest functional levels. * Sysvol replication is being done by DFSR (both server's DFSR migration state is at "eliminated") * Both DCs are also file servers and use DFSR to replicate the "My Documents" file share between the two servers. Error Messages and Symptoms * Event ID 2213 started to appear on 5/4/2013 on DC1, and on 4/30/2013 on DC2 about once a month in pairs for both the C: and D: indicating: "The DFS Replication service stopped replication on volume D:. This occurs when a DFSR JET database is not shut down cleanly and Auto Recovery is disabled. To resolve this issue, back up the files in the affected replicated folders, and then use the ResumeReplication WMI method to resume replication." * GPMC reports that the GPO versions are not in sync. * The Sysvol folders do not have the same number of GPO folders. Potential Resolution >From the event log as well as some reading I've done, it appears that I need >to back up the Sysvol files and run the following for each of the 2 volumes: wmic /namespace:\\root\microsoftdfs path dfsrVolumeConfig where volumeGuid="GUID" call ResumeReplication And since it's been more than 60 days, it appears that I will need to change MaxOfflineTimeInDays to allow this server to perform the recovery process. Questions 1. Am I on the right track to solve this problem (with what I mentioned in the "Potential Resolution" area, or are there different steps that I should be taking? If there is any other information that I need to be aware of, please let me know. 2. Since both/all of the DCs have this problem, will running these commands pose any problems? I assume that I will need to run these commands on both DCs? I plan to run them about a day apart. 3. Since this server is also a file server that has a file share being replicated with DFS-R, will I need to take any special precautions during this recovery? Any help/advice would be appreciated. Thanks! -Aakash Shah

