Microsoft has just re-released the on-premise tool to monitor AD replication: “Active Directory Replication Status Tool” — it works again!
In case you are not aware of the tool itself and the situation which was uncovering around it for the last couple of months, here’s a quick explanation:
This tool is a little GUI helper, useful for almost every AD admin – it quickly shows the replication status of an AD forest. Close to “repadmin”, but easier to use because of the GUI. Microsoft decided to shut down the tool this February and force all its users to migrate to their new cloud monitoring solution Microsoft Operations Management Suite. To achieve this, MS published an “updated” version of the tool which only “enhancement” was a countdown timer which prevented the tool from running after the February 1st.
The mistake MS made was that they didn’t think that the two mentioned tools serve completely different purposes: one use OMS to continuously monitor their IT infrastructure, but this is not the case when you use AD Replication Status Tool — you spin it up when you need to check AD replication right now, instantly: evaluating new Active Directory forest, troubleshooting replication etc. Also, Microsoft often don’t think about internet-disconnected environments — it’s just technically impossible to use Operations Management Suite in such infrastructures. And, for the last, some organizations just don’t want, or couldn’t by law, give their sensitive data to MS, especially via Internet.
All these misunderstandings lead to the creation of this thread on UserVoice where many IT-specialists expressed their anger and explained why OMS cannot replace the on-premise tool in many ways.
Finally, today, our voices has been heard — on-premise tool is back and we all can lean back and relax, but…
They just won’t leave us so easily:
Anyway, I want to thank everyone in the Operational Insights Team for the understanding of the IT-community needs, Ryan Ries for raising this issue and creating the original thread at UserVoice and, of course, all this would not be possible without you — thanks to all sysadmins who raised their voice and voted, argued and explained their needs to the OMS team.