12.8 Performing Synchronization Operations

The Sync Repair Wizard lets you synchronize a selected replica on the current server, report the synchronization status on the current server, report the synchronization status on all servers, perform a time synchronization, and schedule an immediate synchronization.

Use the Sync Repair Wizard to perform the following operations:

12.8.1 Synchronizing the Selected Replica on This Server

Use this operation to determine the complete synchronization status of every server that has a replica of the selected partition.

This helps you determine the health of a partition. If all of the servers with a replica of the partition are synchronizing properly, the partition is considered healthy. Each server in the replica ring is contacted, then each server performs an immediate synchronization to every other server in the replica ring.

Servers do not synchronize to themselves. Therefore, the status for the current server's own replica is displayed as Host.

  1. Run the command ndsrepair -P -Ad.

  2. From the partition list, select replica option.

  3. From the replica options list, select 10.

  4. Provide the server details.

  5. Select 2.

  6. Specify administrator name and password.

12.8.2 Reporting the Synchronization Status on This Server

This operation reports the replica synchronization status for every partition that has a replica on the current server.

This operation reads the Synchronization Status attribute from the replica [Root] object on each server that holds replicas of the partitions. It displays the time of the last successful synchronization to all servers and any errors that have occurred since the last synchronization.

It also displays a warning message if synchronization has not completed within 12 hours.

  1. Run the command ndsrepair -P -Ad.

  2. From the partition list, choose the partition.

  3. From the replica options list, select 10: View Replica Ring.

  4. From the list of servers, select the required server.

  5. From the server options, select 1: Report synchronization status on the selected server.

12.8.3 Reporting the Synchronization Status on All Servers

Use this operation to determine the replica synchronization status for every partition that has a replica on the current server.

This operation reads the Synchronization Status attribute from the replica [Root] object on each server that holds replicas of the partitions. It displays the time of the last successful synchronization to all servers and any errors that have occurred since the last synchronization.

It also displays a warning message if synchronization has not completed within twelve hours.

  1. Run the command ndsrepair -P -Ad.

  2. From the partition list, choose the partition.

  3. From the replica options list, select 6: Report synchronization status of all servers.

12.8.4 Performing a Time Synchronization

This operation contacts every server known to the local eDirectory database and requests information about each server's eDirectory and time synchronization status.

The version of eDirectory running on each server is reported in the DS version field.

The Replica Depth field reports a -1 if no replicas are stored on a given server. 0 is reported if the server contains a replica of the [Root] partition. A positive integer is reported if a replica exists on a given server and indicates how many objects away from [Root] the closest replica to [Root] is.

All servers in an eDirectory tree must be synchronized to the same time source. If all servers are not synchronized to the same time, object synchronization across replicas will not be managed correctly when collisions occur.

The Sync Repair Wizard cannot report the time source for each server, but it does reveal the time server type. This information can then be used to determine if time synchronization is configured properly.

IMPORTANT:You should use NetIQ iMonitor to monitor for the “Nearly-In-Sync” time synchronization status instead of using DSRepair. See Section 8.0, Monitoring eDirectory for more information.

To perform time synchronization, run the command ndsrepair -T.

For more information, see Synchronizing Network Time.

12.8.5 Scheduling an Immediate Synchronization

This operation schedules a synchronization of all replicas to occur immediately. Use this operation if you want to review synchronization information without having to wait for the synchronization process to run as normally scheduled.

To schedules a synchronization of all replicas to occur immediately:

  1. Run the command ndsrepair -P -Ad.

  2. From the partition list, select replica option.

  3. From the replica options list, select 3: Scheduling an Immediate Synchronization.