File Replication Service Improvements in Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 (272567)

SUMMARY

Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 (SP2) includes enhancements to the File Replication service (FRS). These changes improve scalability and supportability in large Windows 2000-based domain deployments. The improvements in FRS are based on scenarios in which a hub site is connected to a large number of branch sites through slow links (for example, 64-KB links).

The changes in SP2 also include improvements to usability and problems fixes.

For additional information about how to obtain the latest Windows 2000 service pack, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

260910 How to Obtain the Latest Windows 2000 Service Pack

NOTE: The hotfix download for this article includes a newer version of the Ntfrsutl.exe file. If you extract the files for this fix by using the /x switch, you can get to this version of the Ntfrsutl.exe file. Replace the current instance of the Ntfrsutl.exe file in your Resource Kit installation with this version.

MORE INFORMATION

The following issues are addressed in this update:

FRS performs an automatic non-authoritative restore if it finds itself in a permanent error condition and doing so seems likely to resolve this condition.
When a connection object that represents a replication partner is permanently damaged and cannot be recovered, references to files kept in the staging area are cleaned up, avoiding overflow of the staging area.
For Sysvol replication, FRS uses connection objects that are visible in Sites and Services under NTDS Settings for the domain controllers. These connections can come and go (for example when a domain controller goes offline and KCC changes the replication topology). For FRS, changing these connections was quite expensive.
There may be a condition in which FRS quits and Service Control Manager cannot restart it, requiring you to reboot to recover, and then initiate a non-authoritative restore manually.
When a file in the staging area is changed again before the latest change has replicated, FRS places a second copy of the file in the staging area and replicates both to its partners.
FRS now uses compression on the wire.
In domains with more than 1,000 replication connections, FRS stops working because it reaches the default LDAP query limit. A workaround is to increase this limit, but the long-term solution is to use paged results.
Using the current troubleshooting tools for FRS can be difficult because of the overwhelming amount of log output and because the output from the Ntfrsutl.exe tool (this is included with the Windows 2000 Support Tools) does not give good clues about the actual problem.

For additional information about how to install Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 hotfixes at the same time, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

249149 Installing Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 Hotfixes