Troubleshooting FRS Using FRSDiag

FRSDiag is an easy-to-use tool that replaces the Health_Chk tool used to gather FRS information. FRSDiag provides a graphical user interface for choosing which information to gather and analyzes the results to identify common FRS and Active Directory problems.

FRSDiag is recommended in the following scenarios:

• You need to gather additional information about a replica member after Sonar or Ultrasound detects a problem.
• You want to investigate FRS error events in the File Replication Service event log.
• You are prompted to do so when you work through the FRS Troubleshooter.

The following sections describe FRSDiag.

Minimum Requirements

You can run FRSDiag on Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000 Professional. To run FRSDiag, you must have .NET Framework version 1.1 installed. The .NET Framework 1.1 is included in Windows Server 2003, or you can download it from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=16722. The .NET Framework 1.1 is included in Windows Server 2003 and can be installed on Windows 2000 (with SP2 recommended) and Windows XP Professional.

Installing and Running FRSDiag

Run FRSDiag.exe to extract the files, and then run the extracted FRSDiag.exe to start the program.

Information FRSDiag Collects By Default

• Event logs
• Ntfrsutl output
• FRS debug logs
• FRS registry dump
• SYSVOL dump
• Repadmin /showreps and /showconn

Additional Information that FRSDiag Creates

• FRS debug logs error scan
• FRSDiag.txt contains the results of tests
• FRSDiag_Log.txt contains information about which tests were requested
• Connstat.txt parses out the sets .txt into a more readable format
• IDTable.txt parses out the IDTable into a more readable format with full file paths
• A .cab file that contains all collected files

FRSDiag Tools

• GUID2Name builds a server GUID-to-name correlation (output in a .txt file) against selected server(s).
• ForceReplication forces replication on target servers, which causes the target servers to replicate all changes from parent (pull replication) regardless of intersite schedules set. This feature only works if you are running at least Windows 2000 SP3 with 811370, Windows 2000 SP4, or Windows Server 2003. This tool only works against SYSVOL, not DFS volumes.
• Propagation File Tracer can be used to check the following in SYSVOL file shares. (This feature is not available in DFS replica sets.)
  • Check for the existence of a single (Propagation) file in SYSVOL. (Note this is not related to the propagation file functionality in Ultrasound.)
  • Current FRS replication consistency (number of files/folders existing in each server)
  • Look for morphed folders in the replica set
• Look for no longer needed Pre_Existing folders
• Other files and folders as specified by using wild cards. You can also use the retry feature to keep checking servers that fail the specified checks.

Tests FRSDiag Performs

FRSDiag performs the following tests. An asterisk (*) next to a test means that a failure might not necessarily indicate a problem.

FRS Event Log*

• Tests for Errors and Warnings (filters when newer 13516 exists)
• Tests 13508 warnings for unmatched 13509
• Filters when event if over 10 days old AND is not one of the latest 7 events

DS Event Log*

• Tests for Errors in the last 12 days

Ntfrs_version

• Tests for minimum FRS version requirements

Ntfrs_DS Services

• Tests for (null) or broken serverReference objects
• Tests for member servers with no connection objects
• Tests for disabled connection objects*
• Tests for null or improperly set fRSMemberReference on SYSVOL volumes
• Tests for (null) values on fRSMemberReference on DFS volumes

Ntfrs_Replica Sets

• Warns about file filters not set to default values*
• Warns about directory filters not set to default values*

Ntfrs_Connstat*

• Warns when number of backlog files is greater than 30 files
• Errors when number of backlog files is greater than 100 files

Ntfrs_Config Table:

• FRS structure (if SYSVOL Dump is selected)
• Tests for existence of SYSVOL folder
• Tests for existence of SYSVOL junction point
• Tests for existence of staging area folder
• Tests for existence of staging area junction point

Inlog/Outlog*

• Warns when 15% of change orders were triggered by "Security" change
• Errors when 40% of change orders were triggered by "Security" change

IDTable

• Errors when an IDtable entry (file or directory) is found with no parent (missing parent issue); details about the IDtable entry are written.

FRS Debug Logs

• ERROR_SHARING_VIOLATION errors*
• ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED errors*
• IBCO_STAGING_RETRY errors
• IBCO_FETCH_RETRY errors
• IBCO_INSTALL_RETRY errors
• Missing Parent Issue Fixed in 811217
• INVALID Join GUID Fixed in 811217

Services and File shares

• Ensures the following needed services are running:
  • NtFrs
  • W32Time
  • Netlogon
  • Server and Workstation
  • RpcSs (RPC Service)

Tests if SYSVOL and NETLOGON file shares exist and are accessible*

Repadmin /showreps

• Tests for any failed Active Directory replication events.
• Options
  • Auto-Retry Target Server(s) that failed to grab data. This option lets you enable Auto-Retry when processing multiple servers. This is helpful for large environments where a server may be unavailable at that time but you must have information from all servers therefore keep trying until the server comes back up. It can be toggled on/off during execution.
  • Attempt to DnsResolve prior to starting. This option checks if you are able to resolve the Target Server(s) name and if that server is accessible at this time. It should only be turned off in large environments where you’d like to keep retrying for down servers and you are confident that name resolution is working correctly.
  • Create “Logs” Directory for data output. This option is to create a Logs directory where all output data will go to (if this is not checked, output is generated from the location Frsdiag.exe was called from, usually on the root of where it resides).