How do I tune Active Directory replication?

A. You can use one of several settings under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesNTDSParameters Registry entry to modify elements of Active Directory (AD) replication. When you make a change to AD, a timer starts. This timer specifies how long the domain controller will wait before notifying its first replication partner about replication between domain controllers. The default time is 5 minutes. To change this time period, edit the Replicator notify pause after modify (secs) value in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesNTDSParameters Registry entry, as the screen shows.

After the domain controller notifies its first replication partner, the domain controller waits before it notifies each subsequent replication partner. This delay prevents simultaneous replies from the replication partners. The default time is 30 seconds. To change this time period, edit the Replicator notify pause between DSAs (secs) value in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesNTDSParameters Registry entry, as the screen shows.

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You can modify other values to enhance a multiple-CPU system’s performance. For example, set the replication thread priority high value to 1 to run replication at high priority. If you don’t set this value, or you set it to 0, replication will run at low priority. Set the replication thread priority low value to 1 to run replication at low priority. If you set this value to -1, the value is ignored.