JSI Tip 2942. Active Directory replication issued RPC error?

When you check the status of Active Directory replication between two domain controllers, you may see The RPC server is unavailable or The RPC server is too busy to complete this operation.

These error messages can be reported in the Event log through Active Directory Replication Monitor (Replmon.exe) from the Windows 2000 Support Tools, or Repadmin.exe from the Windows 2000 Support Tools.

The problem occurs because the time at each domain controller is beyond the skew allowed by Kerberos, preventing authentication.

See tip 2669 - How to Configure an Authoritative Time Server in Windows 2000.

If an authoritative time source is not available, you can use:

net time \PDCFSMO /set /y

where PDCFSMO is the holder of the Primary Domain Controller (PDC) Flexible Single Master Operation (FSMO) role.

If you believe you have a configured time server, open a CMD prompt and type:

w32tm.exe -v

Here is a sample output that shows that PDCFSMO is configured but is not reachable:

   W32Time:       BEGIN:GetSocketForSynch   W32Time:          NTP: ntpptrs[0] - PDCFSMO   W32Time:          rgbNTPServer PDCFSMO   W32Time:          NTP: gethostbyname failed   W32Time:          Port Pinging to - 123   W32Time:          NTP: connect failed   W32Time:       END:Line 1147

Unfortuneatly, no event is logged when your configured time sync fails.