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Title
Delta syncs never complete and keep processing continuously in the Directory Synchronization status page. -
Description
Delta sync's never completes and keep processing in Directory Synchronization page. There are no significant errors or no errors at all in the DSA log, that may cause the Delta sync to never go to sleep mode. Upon analyzing the DSA.log, it seems the DSA keep processing the few same accounts over and over again or there's a significant amount of processed objects.
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Cause
This is likely caused by frequent changes to the whenChanged user attribute. One known reason for this behavior is when the msDS-LastSuccessfulInteractiveLogonTime attribute has been enabled and implemented into the environment to track interactive user logon activity.
Reference: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd446680(v=ws.10).aspx
Additionally the issue could be caused by 3rd party tools or scripts, that would constantly change source AD objects. -
Resolution
RESOLUTION:
Point the Directory Synchronization Agent (DSA) to use a delayed replication Domain Controller as the preferred server in the Agent Manager configuration.
This should help the DSA to complete its change processing and return to sleep mode.
Review possible reasons for the issue:
- Synchronization scope is larger than needed or include unnecessary objects classes, like Computers, Printers or Shares
- Possible 3rd party applications or scripts, that may constantly update AD objects
- Synchronization direction is set for 2-way instead of 1-way
- DSA itself could be corrupt (corrupted DSA cache)
Note: any changes in Synchronization configuration or switching to another DSA, as well as DSA repair will require a full resync, which may not be desirable.