AD FSMO Role Management: Alternate Methods
Dear Junior Admin. Well it seems you have a complicated decision on your mind “what tool for the job?” I have decided its best for you to decide on your own which tools you prefer to work with, although I can ease the pain of the decision by providing insight on each of the tools you have at your fingertips. DCDIAG – is a command line tool that analyzes the state of domain controllers in a forest and shows any problems to help with trouble shooting. There are many useful commands with this tool, much too many to include in this simple letter, but there are plenty of locations on line that provide the commands with descriptions for use. NTDSUTIL – is another command line tool that manages facilities for Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) and the lightweight version (AD LDS). This tool can be used for database maintenance of AD DS, control and manage single master operations, and remove metadata left by domain controllers that had been improperly uninstalled. This tool has many commands that would cause this letter to become undesirably long so Google is your best bet to find them with descriptions. MMC Snap-ins – is a graphical interface that hosts administrative tools for managing your networks, special tools can be created here for administrative tasks. It basically allows you to build your own tools with the standard user interface. This tool will probably be your best bet to begin with, but don’t shy from the other two. Plans for failure of a role holder - Some roles are needed for AD functioning, while other can be gone for a while before being noticed. Usually it’s not the failure of the role, but the failure of the DC which is hosting the role. If a DC fails that holds a role you can seize the role on another DC, seizing should only be done after attempting to transfer the role first. Asses the duration of the hosting DCs outage, if it’s going to be short wait instead of seizing.
As for finding which DCs currently hold which roles and which are global catalog servers.
Determine whether a domain controller is a global catalog server:
1. Open Active Directory Sites and Services.
2. In the console tree
a. expand the Sites container
b. expand the site of the domain controller you want to check
c. expand the Servers container
d. expand the Server object.
3. Right-click the NTDS Settings object
a. click Properties.
4. On the General tab, if the Global Catalog box is selected, the domain controller is designated as a global catalog server. How to Determine the RID, PDC, and Infrastructure FSMO Holders of a Selected Domain
1. Click Start
a. click Run
b. type dsa.msc
c. click OK.
2. Right-click the selected Domain Object in the top left pane
a. click Operations Masters.
3. Click the PDC tab to view the server holding the PDC master role.
4. Click the Infrastructure tab to view the server holding the Infrastructure master role.
5. Click the RID Pool tab to view the server holding the RID master role.

How to Determine the Schema FSMO Holder in a Forest
1. Click Start
a. click Run
b. type mmc
c. click OK.
2. On the Console menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in
a. click Add
b. double-click Active Directory Schema
c. click Close
d. click OK.
3. Right-click Active Directory Schema in the top left pane,
a. click Operations Masters to view the server holding the schema master role.
NOTE: For the Active Directory Schema snap-in to be available, you may have to register the Schmmgmt.dll file. To do this, click Start, click Run, type regsvr32 schmmgmt.dll in the Open box, and then click OK. A message is displayed that states the registration was successful.
How to Determine the Domain Naming FSMO Holder in a Forest
1. Click Start
a. click Run
b. type mmc
c. click OK.
2. On the Console menu
a. click Add/Remove Snap-in
b. click Add, double-click Active Directory Domains and Trusts
c. click Close,
d. click OK.
3. In the left pane
a. click Active Directory Domains and Trusts.
4. Right-click Active Directory Domains and Trust
a. click Operations Master to view the server holding the domain naming master role in the Forest.
Using the NTDSUTIL Tool
• Click Start o click Run o type cmd in the Open box o press ENTER.
• Type domain management o press ENTER.
• Type connections o press ENTER.
• Type connect to server ServerName
 where ServerName is the Name of the Domain Controller you would like to view Ex- “Server15.domain15.local” o press ENTER.
• Type quit o press ENTER.
• Type select operation target o press ENTER.
• Type list roles for connected server o press ENTER.
Thanks,
IT Admin

References
Fleishman, B. (n.d.). How To Determine Active Directory Roles. Retrieved from Jaydien Network Solutions: http://www.jaydien.com/blog/servers/how-to-determine-active-directory-roles.html
Microsoft. (2006, Oct 30). How To Find Servers That Hold Flexible Single Master Operations Roles. Retrieved from Microsoft Support: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/234790
Petri, D. (2008, Jan 08). Determining FSMO Role Holders. Retrieved from Petri IT Knowledgebase: http://www.petri.co.il/determining_fsmo_role_holders.htm
University of Cambridge. (n.d.). University Information Services (Computing)-Active Directory FSMO Roles. Retrieved from University of Cambridge: http://www.ucs.cam.ac.uk/support/windows-support/winsuptech/activedir/fsmoroles
Vitale, D. (2013, Feb 07). Doug Vitale Tech Blog. Retrieved from Network administration commands for Microsoft Windows and Active Directory: http://dougvitale.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/network-administration-commands-for-microsoft-windows-and-active-directory/