AD replication

[theeldergeek]

I had two new machines to add to our domain/network.

They had slightly different names to the machines they were replacing, in that they had a hyphen in the name; I disconnected the old machines, deleted their names from AD, plugged in the new machines, renamed them to the names the old machines had, restarted them and then checked AD again to see if all was well. The 'new' machines with the correct names were showing (as I'd previously deleted the 'old' names, I presumed that the fact that they were again showing was proof the new machines had succesfully joined with their revised names?) Hope that makes sense?

Is that all I needed to do? Someone here said something about replicating but I thought AD did that automagically? How can I check it replicated?

[Brpilot99]

When you say "machines" were they workstations or servers?

[ChrisH]

I think you maybe thinking about group policy applying to them rather than replication between domain controllers. Group policy should apply on start up or during the specified interval. To force it you can use gpupdate /force.
If you are on about replication then log onto the other DC and look in Active Directory Users and Computers and see if they are there which they will be.

[mrbios]

if it is indeed AD replication your after then depending on the settings of your network it could be up to an hour for AD replication to take place between domain controllers. We have 11 DCs in total and they replicate GP/AD changes every 30 minutes.

[theeldergeek]

I think you maybe thinking about group policy applying to them

No, I'm definitely asking about replication.

[theeldergeek]

When you say "machines" were they workstations or servers?

Workstations, as in clients.

[morganw]

Wouldn't you just use ADUC to connect to all your domain controllers and check that the computer objects are there?

[Brpilot99]

OK so what you did sounds perfectly normal .... replication is where a change has been made to AD when logged into one server and other DC's need to be updated with the new information ... so that they are all talking the same story so to speak ... the time this takes is down to your AD setup and also the number of servers that have to be updated ... I think the default is every 15 minutes ...
My way of checking if its working ok is to go to the sysvol\scripts directory and add a file to it ... then go to the other server/s and see if that file has appeared in the same directory on them ... its basic but it give an idea if replication is working ok ..

[theeldergeek]

Wouldn't you just use ADUC to connect to all your domain controllers and check that the computer objects are there?

Sorry, ADUC?

[Domino]

Sorry, ADUC?

Active Directory Users and Computers

[morganw]

Active Directory Users and Computers

Working with Active Directory Users and Computers

[theeldergeek]

Active Directory Users and Computers

Of course! Thanks.