Resetting Lync CMS Replication

The Central Management Store (CMS) stores a copy of the entire Lync topology for your deployment.  Every server has a copy of the CMS, but there can be only one master.  Each Lync server downloads a copy of the CMS from this master at regular intervals.  By default, the first Lync server you deploy is designated the master CMS.  However, there may be cases where you have to move the master CMS to another server.  This can be done relatively easily, assuming you follow the documentation properly.

The CMS replication process uses a local file share to copy updates between servers.  The share is called \\servername\xds-replica.  Every server has this share, including the CMS master.  The share is typically located in the root of the C: drive in the folder C:\RtcReplicaRoot\xds-replica.  If you installed Lync on another drive, this folder will be in the root of that drive.  

Sometimes, you may find that CMS replication is not working on a specific server.  You can check the CMS replication status by running the command Get-CsManagementStoreReplicationStatus. If all is well, every server's UpToDate status will be True.  If a server's status is False, try to force replication by running Invoke-CsManagementStoreReplication -ReplicaFqdn servername.  Wait a few minutes to see if its status changes.  If not, then look in the Event Log for both the failed replica and the CMS master for clues as to what is wrong.

If you can't find any reason for the failed replication, I've found that deleting the xds-replica folder on the failed replica and recreating it seems to reset things and solve the problem.  Unfortunately, even full Lync administrators do not have permissions to view the contents of the xds-replica folder (likely to prevent people like me from making a mess of things).

To "reset" the xds-replica to installation default follow these steps:

1. Stop the following services used for CMS replication:

• Lync Server File Transfer Agent
• Lync Server Replica Replicator Agent (courtesy of the Department of Redundancy Department)

2. Take ownership of the C:\RtcReplicaRoot\xds-replica folder, using the below picture as a guide.  Be warned, that once you start this procedure, you're committed to following through.  When you take ownership of the folder, you will wipe out the required permissions Lync needs to replicate the CMS and remove the share.

3. Once you take ownership, delete the entire xds-replica folder under C:\RtcReplicaRoot.  
4. Go to Control Panel - Programs and Features, select Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Core Components and select Repair.  This will create a new xds-replica folder/share and set the proper permissions.
5. Go back to the Services snap-in and restart the two services.  The Replicator service may have been set to Disabled by the repair process.  Just set it to Automatic before starting it.
6. Run Invoke-CsManagementStoreReplication -ReplicaFqdn servername and after a few minutes you should see the CMS replication status for the server change to True.

This procedure worked like a charm for me on a few occasions.  Let me know if it doesn't work for you.