FRSDiag fails a DC "NtFrs related registry keys for possible problems..."

Question

I'm preparing to upgrade to DFS and running FRSDiag to check replication health.

FRSDiag has fails indicated in the summary for two of the DCs and the below entry for them:

Checking NtFrs related Registry Keys for possible problems...
SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NtFrs\Parameters\Enable Journal Wrap Automatic Restore = 0 :: ERROR: Enabling Journal Wrap Automatic Restore is NOT recommended in post-SP2 version of FRS. Please see KB.292438 (Troubleshooting Journal_Wrap Errors on Sysvol and DFS Repli

I compared the registry of DCs with and without this warning. DCs with a warning have an entry for "Enable Journal Wrap..." but the others do not (as shown in the below capture).

Both "failed" DCs have event ID 13568s from several years back. These events have not been recorded for a very long time. Additionally, there are repeated event ID 13516s in the logs (indicating successful sysvol sharing).

It appears as though whatever caused the Journal Wrap years ago is gone/cleared up. But I have never taken any action in this regard. I have also performed the following tests.

• I can see the netlogon and sysvol shares on all DCs.
• I renamed and deleted a file in the netlogon folder of every DC and it replicated everywhere correctly.
• Setting the REG_DWORD value to 0 in that registry entry appears to be what you do after a successful fix to a Journal Wrap condition. That is the value on those two DCs.
• I can find no issues that might prevent me from entering into the FRS to DFS process.

The FRSDiag reported issues seem to be from found log entries (from long ago) and not current conditions. The 13508 events I found in the event viewer are almost two years old. The last event 13568 is from 12/2018. The last success (event ID 13516) is from 4/21.

My questions then are:

1) Can I ignore this FRSDiag report and proceed to DFS?
2) Should I delete the extra registry entries entirely? That might cause FRSDiag to be completely happy with these two DCs.

Below is a capture from the frsdiag details on a "failed" DC.

Answer 1

Hello @Gary Babin ,

Thank you for posting here.

Here are the answers for your references.

1) Can I ignore this FRSDiag report and proceed to DFS?
A1: Check if AD environment is healthy now. If so, you can ignore this FRSDiag report and proceed to DFSR from FRS.

Here are the steps to check AD health:

1.Check all DCs in this domain is working fine by running Dcdiag /v.

2.Check if AD replication works properly by running commands below on PDC.

repadmin /syncall /AdeP >c:\rep1.txt

repadmin /showrepl >c:\rep2.txt

repadmin /replsum >c:\rep3.txt

repadmin /showrepl * /csv >c:\repsum.csv

3.Had better back up all domain controllers and should back up SYSVOL folder.

4.Check both SYSVOL folder and Netlogon folder are shared by running net share on each DC.

5.Check we can update gpupdate /force on each DC successfully.

2) Should I delete the extra registry entries entirely? That might cause FRSDiag to be completely happy with these two DCs.
A2: Based on my knowledge and search, we can keep the extra registry entries and do not need to delete the registry.

For more information about Journal Wrap Errors, we can refer to links below.

[Solved] NTFRS – Journal Wrap Errors detected on Domain Controller
http://www.squidworks.net/2011/09/ntfrs-journal-wrap-errors-detected-on-domain-controller/

Enable Journal Wrap Automatic Restore
https://wintelteams.wordpress.com/2018/03/19/enable-journal-wrap-automatic-restore/

Please note: Information posted in the given link is hosted by a third party. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy and effectiveness of information.

For more information about migration from FRS to DFSR, we can refer to link below.
qUICKLY Explained: Migrate Your SYSVOL Replication from FRS to DFSR
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/qzaidi/2012/01/16/quickly-explained-migrate-your-sysvol-replication-from-frs-to-dfsr/

Streamlined Migration of FRS to DFSR SYSVOL
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/storage-at-microsoft/streamlined-migration-of-frs-to-dfsr-sysvol/ba-p/425405

Hope the information above is helpful.

Should you have any question or concern, please feel free to let us know.

Tip: It is recommended to test the FRS migration process in a similar test environment. If there is no problem in the test environment, then migrate in the production environment.

Best Regards,
Daisy Zhou

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