FSMO - Role Transfer (NTDSUTIL | Powershell)

Introduction:

Recently the support for Windows Server 2008 & 2008 R2 has expired (14.01.2020 (see references at the end of the blog post).

For this reason, it is highly probable that there are currently a number of projects for IT service providers that deal with this topic, more precisely with the replacement of this server operating system version.

Since I was entrusted with such a case myself (I had to rebuild an old Small Business Server infrastructure), I decided to blog about it.

As most people know, an SBS server has the stupid habit of wanting to hold all FSMO roles (otherwise it restarts every hour).

Definition:

FSMO or Flexible Single Master Operations are special tasks that domain controllers perform within a domain based on Microsoft's Active Directory technology.

In case of SBS replacement, these roles must now be transferred.

FSMO - Transfer

  1. Log to the FSMO-Role holder.
# Query to look for the current fsmo role holder
# Start "cmd" with evelated priviliges
netdom query fsmo
  1. Transfer FSMO - Roles

NTDSUTIL:

  1. Open Command Prompt. Type: ntdsutil
  2. At the ntdsutil command prompt, type: roles
  3. At the fsmo maintenance command prompt, type: connection
  4. At the server connections command prompt, type: connect to <server>
  5. At the server connections command prompt, type: quit
  6. At the fsmo maintenance command prompt, type:
  • Transfer domain naming master
  • Confirm with "yes"
  • Transfer infrastructure master
  • Confirm with "yes"
  • Transfer PDC
  • Confirm with "yes"
  • Transfer RID master
  • Confirm with "yes"
  • Transfer schema master
  • Confirm with "yes"
  1. At the fsmo maintenance command prompt, type: quit
  2. At the ntdsutil command prompt, type: quit

PowerShell:

# Search for the Destination Server
$Server = Get-ADDomainController -Identity "<sAMAccountName>"
# Transfer FSMO Roles
Move-ADDirectoryServerOperationMasterRole -Identity $Server -OperationMasterRole SchemaMaster,DomainNamingMaster,PDCEmulator,RIDMaster,InfrastructureMaster

Reference:

https://support.microsoft.com/de-at/help/4456235/end-of-support-for-windows-server-2008-and-windows-server-2008-r2

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/addsadministration/move-addirectoryserveroperationmasterrole?view=win10-ps