ServersLearn AD in 15 Minutes a Week: Domain Naming Master Domain Controller...

Learn AD in 15 Minutes a Week: Domain Naming Master Domain Controller Page 3

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Transferring FSMO Domain Controller Roles

Once additional domain controllers have
been installed in the forest, it is recommended to move some
of the load off of the forest root domain controller (the
original domain controller installed in the forest and
domain which holds all the per-forest and per-domain roles).
Operations Masters role transfers take place in
conjunction with the current (active) Operation Master. That
is, when you move the Schema Master from the default Domain
Controller to another Domain Controller in the forest, that
is considered a transfer. When you use this controlled
transfer process, the original Operations Master server and
the new one can properly synchronize their directory
databases to ensure that the directory is up to date when
the “final” hand off is made.

The Schema Master
domain controller and the Domain Naming Master operation
master roles should be placed on the same domain controller
for best practices where security and maintenance are
concerned.

[NOTES FROM THE FIELD] –
If and when you should decide to start
updating the domain controller role owners of the different Operations
Masters, you need to be aware that the Schema Administrators
are the default user accounts that have the rights to change
the Schema Master role owner, the Enterprise Administrators
are the default user accounts that have the rights to change
the Domain Naming Master role owner, and the Domain
Administrators are the default user accounts that have the
right to change the domain-wide Operation Master role
owners.

Default does not
mean that manually modified accounts CANNOT perform these
functions, it simply means that with their default standard
settings, these are the built-in accounts that have the
proper permission level to perform the desired transfer
function.

Below is a chart
of which FSMO roles can be handled using which MMC Snap-In.

FSMO Role Snap-in used for Administrator
Schema master Active Directory Schema
Domain naming master Active Directory Domains and Trusts
Relative identifier master        Active Directory Users and Computers 
PDC emulator Active Directory Users and Computers
Infrastructure master Active Directory Users and Computers

In order to transfer the FSMO server
role, it may be necessary to find out which Domain
Controller holds the
role if this isn’t well documented in your environment.

[NOTES FROM THE FIELD] –
There are particular circumstances where role transfers
happen automatically. If you were to run DCPROMO on the
Schema Master to demote the Domain Controller to a member
server, the Operation Master Role of Schema Master would be
passed to whichever Domain Controller the current Schema
Master could reach.

To properly control the transfer of
Operation Master Roles to the other Domain Controllers, you
should transfer the Operation Master Roles before performing
Domain Controller demotions.

Page 4: Viewing FSMO Domain Controller Roles using NTDSUTIL

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