Recipe 12.5 Changing the Intra-Site Replication Interval

12.5.1 Problem

You want to change the number of seconds that a domain controller in a site waits before replicating within the site.

12.5.2 Solution

12.5.2.1 Using a graphical user interface

Run regedit.exe from the command line or Start Run.
Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Services NTDS Parameters.
If a value entry for Replicator notify pause after modify (secs) does not exist, right-click on Parameters and select New DWORD Value. For the name, enter: Replicator notify pause after modify (secs).
Double-click on the value and enter the number of seconds to wait before notifying intra-site replication partners.
Click OK.

12.5.2.2 Using a command-line interface

With the following command, change <NumSeconds> to the number of seconds to set the intra-site replication delay to:

> reg add HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS\Parameters /v "Replicator[RETURN] 
notify pause after modify (secs)" /t REG_DWORD /d <NumSeconds>

12.5.2.3 Using VBScript

' This code sets the intra-site delay interval 
' ------ SCRIPT CONFIGURATION ------
strDC     = "<DomainControllerName>" ' DC you want to configure
intNumSeconds = <NumSeconds>  ' Time in seconds to delay
' ------ END CONFIGURATION ---------

const HKLM = &H80000002
strNTDSReg = "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS\Parameters"
set objReg = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strDC & _
                       "\root\default:StdRegProv")
objReg.SetDWORDValue HKLM, strNTDSReg, _
                     "Replicator notify pause after modify (secs)", _
                     intNumSeconds
WScript.Echo "Intra-site replication delay set to " & intNumSeconds

12.5.3 Discussion

After a change has been made to a domain controller's local copy of Active Directory, it waits for a period of time before sending change notification requests to its intra-site replication partners. The default delay on Windows 2000 domain controllers is five minutes. For Windows Server 2003, the default delay has been changed to 15 seconds. You can customize this notification delay by changing the registry value, Replicator notify pause after modify (secs), on the domain controllers, as described in the Solution section.

If you are changing this setting on Windows 2000 domain controllers, Microsoft recommends removing it after upgrading to Windows Server 2003 in order to utilize the new default of 15 seconds.