You never know how much you miss you Global Catalog until it goes away... unexpectedly.

You know, when all authentication fails?

And you discover that your other Global Catalog server -- isn't?

[ticking sound of death here]

Also, subtle pains from being able to *see* the user data -- but the Directory refusing to use it. Yes, I have all your users and their data. No, you can't use those logins.

@$^ *&$%^$!!

Of course, the backup system wants authentication, too...

Yeah, good times on a Friday afternoon.

Upshot of the matter is, complete failure of replication is not better than partial replication. You know, especially when failures go on silently in the background for weeks, and there's no indication of said failures in, say, the admin tools?!

Down, not across.