How to find FSMO roles for Active Directory Domain Services
Published May 21, 2022 by Danny Moran
Table of Contents
Introduction
To prevent conflicting updates, Active Directory performs updates to certain objects in a single-master fashion. In a single-master model, only one domain controller in the entire directory is allowed to process updates. Active Directory extends the single-master model found in earlier versions of Windows to include multiple roles, and the ability to transfer the roles to any domain controller in the enterprise. Because an Active Directory role isn’t bound to a single domain controller, it’s referred to as a Flexible Single Master Operation (FSMO) role. Currently in Windows there are five FSMO roles:
- Schema master
- Domain naming master
- PDC emulator
- RID master
- Infrastructure master
It’s critical to understand which servers host your Active Directory Domain Services FSMO roles. In this post, I’ll show you how to quickly determine which servers are providing these services.
How to find FSMO roles for Active Directory Domain Services video
Find FSMO roles using Command Prompt
Open Command Prompt by pressing: Win + R, entering cmd, and pressing Enter
In the Command Prompt window, enter: netdom query fsmo and press Enter
The returned information will tell you what server the Schema master, Domain naming master, PDC, RID pool manager, Infrastructure master roles are running on.
Find FSMO roles using Powershell (Method 1)
Open PowerShell by pressing: Win + R, entering powershell, and pressing Enter
In the Command Prompt window, enter: netdom query fsmo and press Enter
The returned information will tell you what server the Schema master, Domain naming master, PDC, RID pool manager, Infrastructure master roles are running on.
Find FSMO roles using Powershell (Method 2)
Open Powershell by pressing: Win + R, entering powershell, and pressing Enter
To find the Schema master and the Domain naming master, enter: Get-ADForest YOUR-LOCAL-DOMAIN | Format-Table SchemaMaster,DomainNamingMaster and press Enter
To find the PDC, RID pool manager, and Infrastructure master, enter: Get-ADDomain YOUR-LOCAL-DOMAIN | Format-Table PDCEmulator,RIDMaster,InfrastructureMaster and press Enter
