Configuration Manager Replication queue backlog clearing

I recently experienced an issue with a very large number of ConfigMgr 2007 package updates (400) to a large number of sites (1700). It turns out there was already a distribution job that was “stuck” in the queue and when the large update went out it resulted in a massive backlog. The end result being there were over 1.3 million files in the Replication Manager inbox that just weren’t being processed, and the number was increasing.

The only option in this sort of situation is to stop the services, move the files out of the inbox, let normal inbox processing resume and then copy the files back in a block at a time. In this case doing this manually wasn’t an option due to the number of files, so I resorted to a quick script based on the one found here: https://tricksntreats.wordpress.com/2010/05/30/sccm-backlog-fighting/

Seek and Destroy duplicate AD objects with CNF in the name

For various reasons, there are times when Active Directory may encounter a situation where multiple objects appear. The duplicates will be named with a CNF:[GUID] on the end of the name.

Here is an excellent Microsoft blog post with an explanation of why it happens and some simple commands to find these objects. It is an issue we encounter at times with Configuration Manager boundaries and slow AD replication, but could happen for many other object types also.

For a slightly simpler method, here is my approach to using AD Users and Computers to find and delete them.

SQL Data Compression and Configuration Manager = BAD

First off just to clarify, I am not a SQL guru, so on this topic I “know of” the feature but don’t really know that much about it.

We recently experienced a problem building a new Primary Site where the database replication links to the CAS failed and nothing we tried could fix the links. We resorted to completely uninstalling the site, deleting the Primary database and rebuilding the entire server OS from scratch. No matter what, the links replication just would not work.

RCMCTRL.LOG – Lot’s of these types of errors
Error: Replication group “Hardware_Inventory_4” has failed to initialize for subscribing site H01, setting link state to Error.

Error: Exception message: [ALTER TABLE SWITCH statement failed. Source and target partitions have different values for the DATA_COMPRESSION option.]

As it turns out, the SQL DBA’s had enabled a wonderful new feature in SQL2012 called Data Compression. In SQL land it probably makes sense and does wonderful things, but in ConfigMgr world it’s BAD.