Description of FRS entries in the registry

The File Replication service (FRS) is a multi-threaded, multi-master replication engine that replaces the LMREPL (LanMan Replication) service in the 3.x/4.0 versions of Microsoft Windows NT. Windows 2000 domain controllers and servers use FRS to replicate system policy and login scripts for Windows 2000 and down-level clients.

FRS can also replicate content between Windows 2000 servers hosting the same fault-tolerant Distributed File System (DFS) roots or child node replicas.

This article describes the registry entries for FRS.

Note You do not have to restart FRS for the settings to become effective.

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Note By default, some registry entries may not exist. If a registry entry does not exist and you want to specify a different value, you can add the entry if you use the specified data type.

The following entries are located in the following registry key:

• Debug Log Severity (REG_DWORD): 0 minimum, 5 maximum, 4 default (if SP2 or later is installed, the default value is 2).
• Debug Log Files (REG_DWORD): 0 minimum, no maximum, 5 default.
• Debug Maximum Log Messages (REG_DWORD): no minimum, no maximum, 10000 default
• DS Polling Short Interval in Minutes (REG_DWORD): 1 minute minimum, no maximum, 5 minutes for domain controllers, 5 minutes for member servers default
• DS Polling Long Interval in Minutes (REG_DWORD): 1 minute minimum, no maximum, 5 minutes for domain controllers, 60 minutes for member servers default
• Staging Space Limit in KB (REG_DWORD): no minimum, no maximum, a5000h or 660 MB default
• Working Directory (REG_DWORD): n/a minimum, n/a maximum, %SystemRoot%\Ntfrs default
• Ntfs Journal size in MB (REG_DWORD):
  SP2 and earlier: Min 10 MB, Max 2 Terabytes, Default, 32 MB
  
  SP3 and later: Min 10 MB, Max 2 Terabytes (TB), Default, 512 MB
• Outlog Change History In Minutes (REG_DWORD): SP2 and later: default 7 days (10,080 minutes)
• Compress Staging Files Value (REG_DWORD):
  00000000 <HEX> 0: Don't compress staging files 1: Compress staging files (DEFAULT)

  288160 Error message: Error compressing data

Note This setting is implemented in NTFS and you have to restart your computer for the setting to become effective.

Detailed Description of FRS Registry Entries

• Debug Log Severity: Controls the verbosity level of the Ntfrs_000x.log files in the %SystemRoot%\Debug folder. Severity levels are assigned to different debug print statements in the code. When set to 0, minimal logging occurs. Level 5 is the most verbose setting. Higher settings are inclusive.
  
  Use lower numbers for best performance or higher numbers to obtain the detail needed to troubleshoot replication problems.
• Debug Log File: the number of active log files that record FRS service transactions and events. Logs are written on a first-in-first-out (FIFO) basis with the highest number containing the most recent events. Logs one through "Debug Log Files" are created in sequential order. After Debug Maximum Log messages are written to the last log (Nftrs_0005.log), the lowest log Ntfrs_0001 is deleted and the version number for the remaining logs get decremented.
  
  Use higher numbers to keep log detail on hand for longer periods of time. Use lower numbers to minimize disk space requirements.
• Debug Maximum Log Messages: The number of lines stored in a single Ntfrs_000x.log debug log file. 10,000 entries uses between 1-2 MB of space on the disk.
• DS Polling Short Interval in Minutes: The interval with which FRS polls the Active Directory at service startup or after configuration changes. FRS performs eight short polling intervals and then switches to long polling intervals if not interrupted by configuration changes that cause the short polling sequence to start over.
• DS Polling Long Interval in Minutes: The interval with which FRS polls the Active Directory for configuration changes after eight short polling intervals have finished without interruption. FRS performs eight short polling intervals and then switches to long polling intervals if not interrupted by configuration changes. Configuration changes cause the short polling sequence to reset.
• Staging Space Limit in KB: The maximum amount of disk space to allocate to files held on disk until retrieved by all downstream replication partners. This should be less than the amount of free disk space. If set to large numbers, staging space may consume all available drive space if downstream replication partners do not pick up changes because of link failures or operating system problems.
• Working Directory: The location of the Ntfrs.jdb file and associated log files. The Jet database should reside on a partition that uses the version of the NTFS file system included with Windows 2000. Modify this value to use a dedicated drive or partition if performance or free disk space becomes an issue. For more information about the Jet database and associated log files and their location, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
  221093 How to relocate the NTFRS Jet Database and log files
• Ntfs Journal size in MB controls the size of the USN journal file, a log that records changes to files and directories on NTFS-formatted partitions. NTFRS monitors the NTFS USN journal file for closed files in FRS replicated directories as long as the FRS service is running. Journal wrap errors occur if a sufficient number of changes take place while FRS is turned off such that the last USN change FRS recorded at shutdown no longer exists in the USN journal when FRS next starts. Increasing the USN journal size, and therefore number of changes it can hold before the journal "wraps", decreases the possibility that the USN journal will wrap will occur.
  
  In Windows 2000 Service Pack 2, valid settings range from 10 to 128 MB with a default of 32 MB. In Windows 2000 Service Pack 3, valid settings range from 4 to 10,000 MB with a default of 512 MB. These settings apply to all volumes hosting an FRS replica tree.
  
  As a rule of thumb, it is suggested to configure 128 MB of journal per 100,000 files managed by replication on that volume.
  
  Increases to the USN journal size are realized after stopping and restarting the NTFRS service. Decreases to the USN journal size can only be made by reformatting all volumes containing FRS replicated content. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
  292438 Troubleshooting journal_wrap errors on Sysvol and DFS replica sets
• Outlog Change History In Minutes controls outlog change-order retention. The FRS outbound log processing changed in the Windows 2000 post-SP2 hotfix to retain change orders even after you send them to all current downstream partners. This change permits FRS to synchronize with a new downstream partner from the outlog and to avoid a full IDTable scan. This change is helpful in environments where the topology changes frequently. The change is also helpful during a rollout when new members come online in a short time. Because of this change, you cannot rely on dumping the outlog (by using the ntfrsutl outlog command) to know whether the outlog is empty. To determine the state of the outlog for each outbound partner, you must use the Connstat utility. An additional benefit of this change is that when you dump the outlog, you can find those files that the member has replicated recently. Use the Iologsum utility to generate a sorted report for analysis