LKBEN10666: Howto change FSMO Roles to other domain controllers in an active directory

Symptom

You need to change a certain role from one DC to another

Cause

This can be done to distribute the load

Solution

Logon to a domain controller and start a command line. Now type ntdsutil. You get a prompt because this command is interactive.

ntdsutil

Now you type on the prompt roles:

ntdsutil: roles

You need to create a connection by typing connections

fsmo maintenance: connections

Now you type "connect ot server" followed by the name of the server you want to have the role!

server connections: connect to server name-of-the-dc-getting-the-role
Bindung with "your-DC-you-entered" ...

You need to type quit which will bring you back one level in the interactive commandline.

server connections: quit

Now you give in the command to move or change the role. For the PDC Emulator you type "Seize pdc"

fsmo maintenance: Seize pdc

You will get feedback of the change.

If you need to change other roles you need to type:

Seize domain naming master
Seize schema master
Seize infrastructure master
Seize rid master

instead of "Seize pdc"

Now you know how to changed the fsmo roles in an active directory environment.

Disclaimer:

About the Author

Author: Wim Peeters - Keskon GmbH & Co. KG

Wim Peeters is electronics engineer with an additional master in IT and over 30 years of experience, including time spent in support, development, consulting, training and database administration. Wim has worked with SQL Server since version 6.5. He has developed in C/C++, Java and C# on Windows and Linux. He writes knowledge base articles to solve IT problems and publishes them on the Lubby Knowledge Platform.