I have 2 DC (DC1 and DC2, both 2012 R2). I used to have a 3rd DC (DC_TMP, 2k8 R2).
DC_TMP has been decommissioned, and any and all references to the server have been removed (ADUC, ADSI, ADSS, DFS management, ntdsutil knows nothing about that server either.
From ALL I can see, that server does not exist anywhere.
Yet, DFSR is failing miserably claiming that it cannot communicate with DC_TMP....obviously!
Event 5008:
The DFS Replication service failed to communicate with partner DC_TMP for replication group Domain System Volume. This error can occur if the host is unreachable, or if the DFS Replication service is not running on the server.Event 4612:
The DFS Replication service initialized SYSVOL at local path C:\Windows\SYSVOL\domain and is waiting to perform initial replication. The replicated folder will remain in the initial synchronization state until it has replicated with its partner DC_TMP.contoso.com.
I went through all the articles I could find,, including and not limited to this one https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/fa802a02-6f8f-4768-9f29-04d62986d305/dfsr-fails-with-partner-that-no-longer-exists?forum=winserverDS, performed an authoritative replication, all outputs saying it was successful yet nothing has been synchronized.
I see 2 options from here:
1) I somehow change the entry in some configuration file somewhere from DC_TMP to DC1
2) Delete the replication and recreate it (DFS management is currently listing DC1 and DC2 as it should be)
I'm at a complete loss at this point.
Thanks.