Is it possible to use profile sync on two a production and staging sharepoint server?

Question

Our staging server has been neglected for a while, and I'm trying to get it back to as close as production as I can. I'm trying to setup profile sync and I've used the same accounts for production and I'm not pulling any accounts back.

We don't use profile sync to export back to AD so I figured using the synchronization service wasn't necessary. After not getting any accounts back I switched it to use the sync service and still no results.

EDIT: The ultimate goal would be to get staging setup without profile sync service, since from what I've read the service is not required if you never export back to AD, and eventually setup production the same way.

Answer 1

You're not giving too much information so helping is quite difficult. UPS can be broken in million different ways, but looks like the sync is starting but it's not importing anything.

Look at FIM console for the specific error: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\14.0\Synchronization Service\UIShell\miisclient.exe --> verify you're not missing Replicate Directory permission in AD for the UPS sync account. If the error is something else, let us know.