Troubleshooting Active Directory Domain Services

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

This guide provides troubleshooting information for Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) in the Windows Server® 2008 operating system. It is designed to help you identify and resolve problems that may be related to AD DS. Conditions for domain controllers that are running versions of Windows Server 2003 in a Windows Server 2008 forest are also discussed.

This release of this guide includes troubleshooting recommendations and procedures for diagnosing and fixing problems that may occur with Active Directory replication in a Windows Server 2008 forest. This content focuses primarily on responses to Directory Service event log messages and tool-based error messages that might be reported by the Repadmin.exe and Dcdiag.exe tools. These tools are available on all domain controllers that are running Windows Server 2008. You can also install Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) on a member server that is running Windows Server 2008 or on a computer that is running Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 (SP1). For information about installing RSAT, see Configuring a Computer for Troubleshooting.

In this guide

Acknowledgments

Produced by: Microsoft Windows Server Directory and Access Services (DAS) IT Pro Content Team

Writer: Mary Hillman

Editor: Jim Becker

Technical reviewers: Arren Conner, Kurt Hudson, Gregory Johnson, Rob Kochman, Ajit Krishnan, Dave Tesar