Ok, lets start with my environment:
dc1 - windows server 2003 r2
dc2 - windows server 2012 r2
fs1- windows server 2003 r2
fs2 - windows server 2012 r2
Namespace - \\<fqdn>\data (the fqdn would be like contoso.microsoft.com)
I am in the process of migrating everything from server1 to server2 (dc and fs listed above). I am done with mostly everything except DFS. I have migrated the data, setup permissions, shares, etc. and replicated the data between fs1 and fs2. I have verified that all data is currently replicated and up to date, so no backlogs. I am trying to add dc2 and fs2 as namespace servers. This is so that I can point all of the referrals to FS2 that way when I remove FS1 no one gets an error about not being able to find the files. The problem is that from all 4 servers, I receive an error message when loading the namespace via DFS Management tool. I then thought because of the drastic differences between the versions, the next best thing would be to export the namespace and then import it into the new server, but even attempting the export command (dfsutil) gives me the same error. My suspect is that the original namespace server was removed sometime ago without the previous IT person properly migrating everything (but I am at a loss cuz here I am). I then thought if I go through ADSIedit, I can change the namespace server to the new one for all of my shares, and then possibly be able to load the namespace within the MMC tool (again just a guess); however, I cannot find anything listed for namespace or remoteservers under the properties of the share.
Note: the namespace does work when I navigate to it from a PC. \\contoso.microsoft.com\data does bring up folders and files. (changed the name for obvious reasons)
At this point, I just want to have my new namespace server, so that I can change the referrals, and decommission my other servers. (And yes there are many other steps I need to perform for the decommissioning, but that's not the point of this). I have read numerous articles on this and haven't found a way to accomplish what I want. Even though I walked through the steps listed for those issues and unfortunately they either did not apply or did not work. I prefer to not use ADSIedit if at all possible, simply because it's not the "clean" way of doing things, but if I have no other option then I have no other option.
Edit 1: In event viewer on dc1, under File Replication Service on the left hand side, I see the following error appear numerous times (not every day, but still a lot). I have not performed any of the steps listed simply because I do not know if this pertains to my problem and I don't want to start troubleshooting a server I plan on decommissioning unless I need to (say for the above issue):
Event ID: 13568
Source: NtFrs
Description:
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.
[1] At the first poll, which will occur in 5 minutes, this computer will be deleted from the replica set. If you do not want to wait 5 minutes, then run "net stop ntfrs" followed by "net start ntfrs" to restart the File Replication
Service.
[2] At the poll following the deletion this computer will be re-added to the replica set. The re-addition will trigger a full tree sync for the replica set.
WARNING: During the recovery process data in the replica tree may be unavailable. You should reset the registry parameter described above to 0 to prevent automatic recovery from making the data unexpectedly unavailable if this error condition occurs again.
To change this registry parameter, run regedit.
Click on Start, Run and type regedit.
Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
Click down the key path:
"System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NtFrs\Parameters"
Double click on the value name
"Enable Journal Wrap Automatic Restore"
and update the value.
If the value name is not present you may add it with the New->DWORD Value function under the Edit Menu item. Type the value name exactly as shown above.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Edit 2: I have verified that firewalls are off and I can communicate to all 4 servers from each other.
Edit 3: Attempted to try and fix error reported in 'Edit 1'; however the registry key mentioned does not exist (looked at all 4 servers to verify).