How to Seize Forest and Domain Master Roles

Issue:

A domain controller containing an FSMO role has failed and you need to seize the role to another Domain Controller.

 

Solution:

To seize the FSMO roles by using the Ntdsutil utility, follow these steps:

1)      Log on to the domain controller that you are assigning FSMO roles to. The logged-on user should be a member of the Enterprise Administrators and Schema Administrators groups to transfer schema or domain naming master roles, or a member of the Domain Administrators group of the domain where the PDC emulator, RID master and the Infrastructure master roles are being transferred.

2)      Click Start…Run

a.       Type: ntdsutil

b.      Click OK

3)      Type roles

4)      Type connections

5)      Type connect to server servername

a.       where servername is the name of the local domain controller.  (The domain controller you want to assign the FSMO role to)

6)      At the server connections prompt

a.       Type: quit

7)      Type seize role

a.       where role is the role that you want to seize. For a list of roles that you can seize, type ? at the fsmo maintenance prompt.

8)      At the fsmo maintenance prompt

9)      Type quit

10)  Type quit

a.       Exits the NTDSutility

 

More Information:

Using Ntdsutil.exe to transfer or seize FSMO roles to a domain controller