This topic contains the following:

Overview of Checking the Synchronization Status of a Partition

Overview of Checking Partition Continuity

Overview of Viewing the Partitions on a Server

Overview of Viewing a Partition's Replicas

Overview of Viewing Information about a Partition

Overview of Viewing Partition Hierarchy

Overview of Viewing a List of All Partitions in the Tree

Overview of Checking the Synchronization Status of a Partition

Perform this operation as a low-level diagnostic check since it is safe to perform under all circumstances. NDS* Manager* reads the partition status attribute for each partition to determine any synchronization errors.

This operation allows you to check the synchronization status of partitions in your tree. If you run this operation from the Tree View, you can check the status of the chosen partition only. If you run this operation from the list of Partitions and Servers, you can check the status of all the partitions in your Directory tree.

NDS Manager displays the findings of the synchronization check in a dialog box. You can then check the partition continuity of any partitions that have returned errors and run repair operations on those partitions.

This operation may provide incomplete information since it only checks for synchronization errors on the first server in the replica list that responds to the request. (Synchronization errors may be occurring on other servers in the replica list.)

To check for synchronization errors among all servers that hold a replica of the chosen partition, go to the Partition Continuity view.

Overview of Checking Partition Continuity

To check partition continuity ("walk the replica ring" of a partition) is to examine all of the servers holding replicas of a selected partition and to verify that each server has the same information for the partition's replica list (or replica ring).

If each server holding a replica of the chosen partition does not have an identical replica list, or if a replica cannot synchronize with the Directory tree for any reason, then the Partition Continuity view displays one or more errors.

Errors appear as exclamation points inside the replica icons and look like the following:

To get context-sensitive help on an error, double-click the icon and from the Replica Information dialog box, click Help next to Current Sync Error.

Note: You may also see icons representing unreadable replicas. Unable to read icons do not necessarily signify that the servers can't talk, but at the very least, there is some reason the client cannot contact the server for information.

Overview of Viewing the Partitions on a Server

You can select a NetWare* Server object and view which partitions have replicas stored on it and the type of each partition's replica. Each partition is specified by the complete name of the container object at the root of the partition.

You can see how many partitions are stored on the server.

You might want to view the partitions stored on a server if you are planning to remove a NetWare Server object from the Directory tree. In this case, you could view the replicas you need to remove before removing the object.

Overview of Viewing a Partition's Replicas

You can select a partition and view its replica list. This operation lets you identify:

Which servers the partition's replicas reside on

Which server holds the master replica of the partition

Which servers have read/write, read-only, and subordinate reference replicas of the partition

Overview of Viewing Information about a Partition

You can view the following details about a partition:

Its complete name

The server which holds the master replica. This is a complete name.

The number of read/write, read-only, master, and subordinate reference replicas of the partition

The time of its last successful synchronization

The time of its last attempted synchronization

You can gather most of the information about a partition without leaving the main view you're working from. When you select a partition in the browser, the replica pane on the right of the browser displays replica information for the partition.

The most significant reason to view information about a partition is to identify its synchronization information. For example, if the time of a partition's last successful synchronization is earlier than the time of its last attempted synchronization, you know that the partition may have synchronization errors. (This information about synchronization time is not available on NDS versions prior to 489).

Overview of Viewing Partition Hierarchy

You can view the hierarchy of partitions in your Directory tree from the Tree View. This view allows you to browse the logical structure of the partitions in your Directory tree by expanding and collapsing container objects. In other words, you can see which partitions are parent and which are child partitions.

Overview of Viewing a List of all Partitions in the Tree

You can view a flat list of partitions in your Directory tree from the list of Partitions and Servers.

If you want to simply list the partitions in your tree (from a certain context), use this view. If you need to see which partitions are parent and child partitions (the partition hierarchy), you must go to the Tree View.