Network Troubleshooting - Windows Server 2003 Networking Recipes - page 394

Using a Command-Line Interface
The following command will display all configured replication partners for a server named
computer1.mycompany.com :
> repadmin /showreps computer1.mycompany.com
The following command will force replication to occur between two servers named
computer1 and computer2 :
> repadmin /replicate computer1.mycompany.com computer2.mycompany.com
The following command will display all connection objects configured for computer1.
mycompany.com :
> repadmin /showconn computer1.mycompany.com
How It Works
When troubleshooting Active Directory replication, the repadmin tool from the Windows
Support Tools is one of the most powerful utilities available in your administrative arsenal.
This single tool encompasses a wide range of functions using different command-line param-
eters. Some of the operations that you can perform with repadmin include the following:
Bind : Connects to a partition on a particular domain controller
Bridgeheads : Lists bridgehead servers for a site
Checkprop : Compares different domain controllers to see if they are up to date with
one another
Dsaguid : Returns the server name associated with a particular globally unique
identifier (GUID)
Failcache : Displays a list of failed replication events
Istg : Returns the name of the Inter-Site Topology Generator (ISTG) for a given site
Kcc : Forces the Knowledge Consistency Checker (KCC) to recalculate the replication
topology for a particular domain controller
Latency : Returns the amount of time between replications
If you are more comfortable working with a graphical interface, you can use the Replmon
tool (also in the Windows Support Tools) to approximate most of the features exposed by
repadmin; however, you will probably find the command-line tool to be far more flexible and
powerful, and well worth the effort to become familiar with.