Posted: 21 Mar 2005
Here's a typical question from a reader, who wants to automate DSRepair to
run it frequently:
"I have a mix of NetWare 5.1, 6.0 and 6.5 servers. I want to run DSRepair on
all of them, every other week. Is there a way to automatically do this? Or do I
have to log on to each server, one at a time? That would take all day!"
And here's some insight on the topic from one of our Forum experts:
Unless there is a specific reason (such as to purge old network address
attributes), this is very strongly NOT recommended. DSREPAIR is not a
maintenance utility, it is a database repair utility. It sees inconsistencies in
the database and attempts to fix them as best it can.
The best approach is to diagnose first, then fix the problem. You
wouldn't fix your car by randomly hitting it with a mallet in the hopes that
something will fall into place and fix something you were not aware of.
That said, if you really want to run a repair automatically, the eDirectory
Management Toolbox is designed with scriptability in mind. It has the database
repair functionality in it and can be scripted.
In my opinion, DSREPAIR is the single most improperly used tool in this
respect. It's a sledgehammer intended to fix database structure problems, first
and foremost. I would strongly urge you to use the iMonitor health check
functionality on a weekly basis - it's a much faster way to perform a health
check. For example:
- Log in to iMonitor on a server with a copy of [Root].
- Select "Agent Health" and look for green lights.
- Select "Known Servers".
- To the right of each server, select "Agent Health" and check for green
lights.
- Click the browser "Back" button.
- Repeat this process until you've hit all the servers.
I demonstrate this regularly with a 15-server environment, and the complete
health check takes only about 2 minutes.
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