Intermittent Replication Failure Between PDC and DR Site AD Nodes

Question

Environment:

• Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) deployment with 5 Domain Controllers (DCs)
  • Primary Domain Controller (PDC) and 2 Additional DCs (ADC1 & ChildDC1) at the Datacenter (DC) site.
  • 2 Additional DCs (ADC2 & ChildDC1) at the Disaster Recovery (DR) site.

Problem:

We are experiencing intermittent replication failures between the PDC located at the DC site and the DR site AD nodes (ADC2 & ChildDC1). This occurs sporadically (2-3 times a day) and does not follow a specific pattern or timeframe.

During these incidents, accessing file shares (Admin Share/network share) from the PDC to the DR site DCs becomes unavailable.

Troubleshooting Performed:

• Verification of open firewall ports for necessary AD DS replication traffic between sites.
• Network monitoring during incidents confirms no blockage on the connection between DC and DR sites.
• DNS and NIC configurations ruled out as the issue is not persistent.

Temporary Resolution (Workaround):

Disabling and re-enabling the network adapter on the PDC momentarily resolves the replication issue. However, this is not a sustainable solution as the problem recurs.

Event Logs:

No relevant events are found within System, Application, or Network Profile logs during these incidents.

Request:

We kindly request assistance from Microsoft engineers to diagnose the root cause of this intermittent replication failure and provide a permanent resolution.

Additional Information:

• Can be provided upon request (e.g., AD DS version, specific replication error messages if identified in the future).

Answer 1

Hi Robayet,

Thank you for posting in the Microsoft Community Forums.

Event Logs:

No relevant events are found within System, Application, or Network Profile logs during these incidents.

You say you can't find the relevant event in the event log, you should go to the event viewer in DS and check for reported errors. Whenever there is a replication error, a time reporting error will be generated in DS.

As for the other cases you mentioned, you can't get a specific reason for the error at the moment.

So I suggest you go to DS and copy or take a screenshot of the specific error reporting from the event viewer in a follow-up reply.

Best regards

Neuvi Jiang

Answer 2

Do you believe this incident might be the culprit?

Should I follow this article - Active Directory replication error 8453 - Windows Server | Microsoft Learn

Answer 3

Hi Robayet,

Yes, your specific error number is 8453, and the article gives specific steps to follow if you encounter the 8453 error, just follow the content of the article.

Best regards

Neuvi Jiang

Answer 4

I have identified additional errors in the DFS Replication segment -

The ADC02 is located at the DR Site.

The ADC01 is situated within the DC Site and shares the same subnet as DC01. Consequently, there is no firewall between DC01 and ADC01.