Force DFS-R into a dirty state

We use Windows Server 2012 as our file system running DFS-R between our two sites as part of our business continuity systems. Last week, DFS-R failed at one site requiring the file server to be rebooted. The same thing has just happened at the other site causing several hours of downtime whilst we tried to resolve - although now we know to simply reboot which isn't nice.

The DFS-R service is currently disabled whilst we diagnose the root cause (timeout errors in ESENT) but I'd like to bring it back online overnight.

I'd like to be able to force the same code that runs when a dirty shutdown occurs, i.e. check the database when the service is restarted. I know this takes many hours but I'd prefer that than bringing up a service that might instantly fail again.

Is this possible?

Solution 1:

Well you could delete the database and cause dirty shutdown recovery if you really want to.

But I think what you should really do here is take a backup, gather the debug logs (for analysis) as is and then decide whether you want to start the service or perhaps re-initialize the RF/database.

You need to pick a server to be the starting primary if you are going down this route.

Debug log analysis docs if you want a stab at log analysis are here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2009/04/09/dfsr-debug-log-series-wrapup-and-downloadable-copies.aspx