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View the Current Operations Master Role Holders

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Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2

To view the current operations master (also known as flexible single master operations or FSMO) role holders, use the Ntdsutil.exe command-line tool with the roles option. This option displays a list of all current role holders.

After you transfer an operations master role, use this procedure to verify that the transfer has occurred successfully throughout the domain. To have full effect, the change must replicate to all domain controllers in the domain for a domain-level role and to all domain controllers in the forest for a forest-level role.

Membership in Domain Admins, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. Review details about using the appropriate accounts and group memberships at Local and Domain Default Groups (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83477).

To view the current operations master role holders

  1. Open Ntdsutil as an administrator: Click Start, and then, in Start Search, type ntdsutil. At the top of the Start menu, right-click ntdsutil, and then click Run as administrator. In the User Account Control dialog box, provide Domain Admins credentials, and then click OK.

  2. At the ntdsutil: prompt, type roles, and then press ENTER.

  3. At the fsmo maintenance: prompt, type connections, and then press ENTER.

  4. At the server connections: prompt, type connect to server <servername>, where <servername> is the name of the domain controller that belongs to the domain that contains the operations masters.

  5. After you receive confirmation of the connection, type quit, and then press ENTER to exit this menu.

  6. At the fsmo maintenance: prompt, type select operation target, and then press ENTER.

  7. At the select operations target: prompt, type list roles for connected server, and then press ENTER.

    The system responds with a list of the current roles and the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) name of the domain controllers that are currently assigned to host each role.

  8. Type quit, and then press ENTER to exit each prompt in Ntdsutil.exe. At the ntdsutil: prompt, type quit, and then press ENTER to close the window.