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On Windows NT4, we had two principal roles on the domain controllers: PDC (Primary Domain Controller) and BDC (Backup Domain Controller).
Since Windows 2000, all domain information are located in AD (Active Directory) and five new roles have been defined. These roles are called FSMO (Flexible Single Master Operations):
- Schema master: Controls all updates and modifications of the schema for the forest
- Domain naming master: Controls addition or removal of domains in the forest
- Infrastructure master: Updates references of all objects in its domain
- RID master: Process RID requests from all DCs in its domain
- PDC emulator: Maintain PDC role for computers older than Windows 2000 for its domain, and act as Domain Master Browser
There are two different ways to transfer these roles to different servers:
- Command line, using Ntdsutil.exe
- Graphical interface, using MMC snap-in
The different roles are available from the following MMC snap-in:
- Schema master: Active Directory Schema
- If this snap-in is not available, you will need to register it by executing:
- regsvr32 schmmgmt.dll
- Domain naming master: Active Directory Domains and Trusts
- Infrastructure master: Active Directory Users and Computers
- RID master: Active Directory Users and Computers
- PDC emulator: Active Directory Users and Computers
When migrating or removing DCs, check on which server these roles are hosted. This is also very important to verify which servers have Global Catalog services and where the licensing services are installed.
I hope this article was helpful, by providig basic information on AD services.
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Written by Nicolas Buache
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Created on Saturday, 14 January 2012
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Last Updated on Saturday, 14 January 2012
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Hits: 1413
