Time error caused "Exceeded tombstone lifetime" 2

[TekkieDave]

I had a piece of freeware that update one of my servers time from a NIST time server. For some reason, after months of use, the NIST server told my server that it was the year 2150 ! Then when the server tried to replicate, it said that the server had been out of use for more that 6months, and that the tombstone life had been exceeded. i switched the time back, and downed the server, and I'm still having the same replication issues. Here is the even log from Directory service:

"It has been too long since this machine last replicated with the named source machine. The time between replications with this source has exceeded the tombstone lifetime. Replication has been stopped with this source. "

Does anyone know of a way to remedy this? I know the data on the servers should be accurate, since they were replicating fine until this debacle. I'm trying to avoid forcibly demoting the servers.

Thanks in advance,

Dave



**Okay, have you tried rebooting the machine?**

 

[bofhrevenge2]

Had a similar problem recently and managed to solve it.

It involved a registry edit to add an entry.
Go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS\Parameters

And add the dword:
Allow Replication With Divergent and Corrupt Partner

Set the value to 1

We then allowed a replication to occur and removed the reg edit to restore the error protection, we haven't had any errors since and the active directory seems identical on both servers.

Make sure your backups are good before trying and if you have the equipment I’d test first.

I would certainly be wary about doing this in a large environment but as there was only two servers in this case it wasn't going to be a complete disaster.

 

[bofhrevenge2]

This is the event id that i was receiving.


Event Type: Error
Event Source: NTDS Replication
Event Category: Replication
Event ID: 2042

 

[TekkieDave]

Yeah, I am getting the same exact error message.

So this registry edit will allow the replication to occur by igoring the "tombstone" error?

After you replicated once you removed the registry entry?

I actually have 3 servers, but in an effort to fix the problem with the original server, I did a "replicate now" on the other server, and the problem spread. I haven't replicated with the 3rd server, and it seems to be ok.

**Okay, have you tried rebooting the machine?**

 

[bofhrevenge2]

Yes basically one of our servers got out of sync and the other server wouldn't replicate to it as it thought it was more than 60 days out of date, normally even a forced replication will not work at this point. The reason for this is that deleted objects maybe replaced.

In my case I allowed the servers to replicate by removing the error protection, the most up to date AD on server1 replicated to server2 and they were then both up-to-date. After this was done I removed the regedit to restore the error protection. Everything has been fine since.

It might be an idea to take the good server down for now while you try and sort the other 2.

 

[TekkieDave]

I can't take the "good" server down, unfortunately. Some mission critical stuff resides on it that certain users must use all day. I'm going to try removing the error protection and replicating when most of the users have gone home tonight.

Thanks for the advice.

-Dave

**Okay, have you tried rebooting the machine?**

 

[TekkieDave]

I just removed the error protection, replicated the servers, and put the error protection back on. Everything seems to be working fine.

Thanks so much again.

**Okay, have you tried rebooting the machine?**

 

[bofhrevenge2]

And breath out

Glad to of helped.

Cheers.