NTFRS - journal wrap errors detected on domain controller

File Replication Service has detected that the replica set “DOMAIN SYSTEM VOLUME (SYSVOL SHARE)” is in JRNL_WRAP_ERROR

Are you getting this error in your File Replication Service?

The File Replication Service has detected that the replica set “DOMAIN SYSTEM VOLUME (SYSVOL SHARE)” is in JRNL_WRAP_ERROR.
Replica set name is : “DOMAIN SYSTEM VOLUME (SYSVOL SHARE)”
Replica root path is : “c:\windows\sysvol\domain”
Replica root volume is : \\.\C:
A Replica set hits JRNL_WRAP_ERROR when the record that it is trying to read from the NTFS USN journal is not found. This can occur because of one of the following reasons.
[1] Volume “\\.\C:” has been formatted.
[2] The NTFS USN journal on volume “\\.\C:” has been deleted.
[3] The NTFS USN journal on volume “\\.\C:” has been truncated. Chkdsk can truncate the journal if it finds corrupt entries at the end of the journal.
[4] File Replication Service was not running on this computer for a long time.
[5] File Replication Service could not keep up with the rate of Disk IO activity on \\.\C:.
Setting the “Enable Journal Wrap Automatic Restore” registry parameter to 1 will cause the following recovery steps to be taken to automatically recover from this error state.

This is caused when the Sysvol gets currupted and is simple to fix. I will walk you through the steps.

First off before we do anything lets backup by taking a Shadow Copy of the C: Drive. To do this we will open MyComputer and select the C:Drive, right click it and select properties. Now find the ShadowCopy Tab, highlight the C: Drive and click the “Create Now” button to create a backup point on the drive. You do not need to “Enable” ShadowCopy to take a 1 time snapshot.

Now that we have a backup point to go to if all hell breaks loose we can safely move on to the next step.
Open up  REGEDIT and navigate to the RegKey -> System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NtFrs\Parameters and create a new REG_DWORD key called Enable Journal Wrap Automatic Restore and place a 1 as the hex value.

Now launch a Command window(DOS) and run the following commands:

    NET STOP NTFRS

    NET START NTFRS

This will then cause the following to appear in your File Replication Service Event Log:

The File Replication Service is deleting this computer from the replica set “DOMAIN SYSTEM VOLUME (SYSVOL SHARE)” as an attempt to recover from the error state,
Error status = FrsErrorSuccess
At the next poll, which will occur in 5 minutes, this computer will be re-added to the replica set. The re-addition will trigger a full tree sync for the replica set.

This will be followed by the following Event Log:

File Replication Service is scanning the data in the system volume. Computer MyDomainServer cannot become a domain controller until this process is complete. The system volume will then be shared as SYSVOL.

This will be followed by the following Event Log:

The File Replication Service moved the preexisting files in
c:\windows\sysvol\domain to c:\windows\sysvol\domain\NtFrs_PreExisting___See_EventLog.

Now we need to wait a bit and allow the replication to complete. This has taken anywhere from 5 minutes to 20 minutes for me based on server and what is being replicated. You will know it is complete when you get the Event Log:

The File Replication Service is no longer preventing the computer MyDomainController from becoming a domain controller. The system volume has been successfully initialized and the Netlogon service has been notified that the system volume is now ready to be shared as SYSVOL.

Once you get this log your replication is complete and the Journal Wrap issues are fixed. We now need to go back to REGEDIT and change the entry we placed in there from a 1 to a 0.