Verifying SYSVOL Junction Points

Run FRSDiag against the domain controller and verify the junction points by viewing Ntfrs_sysvol.txt. The junction points look similar the following:

12/06/2001  02:53p	<DIR> 	.
12/06/2001  02:53p	<DIR> 	..
12/21/2000  10:10a	<JUNCTION>  Contoso.COM
0 File(s)			0 bytes

If <JUNCTION> exists, do the following:

  1. Check to see if someone restored SYSVOL to two or more locations or copied SYSVOL to another location. If so, you have too many junction points. Because they are all linked, deleting data in one location will delete data from other folders.
  2. Find all locations where SYSVOL was restored or copied.
  3. Use the Resource Kit tool Linkd.exe to delete junctions, and then delete the folder.
  4. Test replication and run FRSDiag again.

If <JUNCTION> does not exist, note that FRS does not function without the junction point. To correct this, perform the following procedure.

  1. Use the Resource Kit tool Linkd.exe to recreate the SYSVOL junction point. For more information about creating junction points, see article 205524, "How to Create and Manipulate NTFS Junction Points" at http://support.microsoft.com/?id=205524.
  2. Restart FRS.
  3. If it works, test replication and run FRSDiag again.

If this procedure does not fix the issue, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to discuss other methods of restoring the junction point. One possible procedure is a nonauthoritative restore, which will fix the junction point but will require the entire replica tree to be replicated to this server. You can prestage the data to avoid replicating data across the network.

For more information about SYSVOL junction points, see article 324175, "Best Practices for SYSVOL Maintenance" at http://support.microsoft.com/?id=324175.