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        How To Use DsQuery To Find All The Domain Controllers In The Domain or Forest?

Section(s): Active Directory , Active Directory , Active Directory
Published on Oct 01, 2009.
Last Modified on Apr 04, 2009.
Last Modified by Nirmal Sharma.
Rated 3 out of 5 based on 1 votes.

This article explains DsQuery commands which you can use to find all the domain controllers.

There are many command line tools which can be used to interact with Active Directory. These command line tools are DsMOD, DsQuery, DsGet etc. This article explains DsQuery command line tool and hows how you can use this command line tool to get the list of domain controllers based upon your requirement.

To find all the domain controllers in the forest with DN and RDN:

DsQuery Server -o rdn -Forest
DsQuery Server -Forest

To find all the domain controllers in a domain:

DsQuery Server -domain domain_name.com

To list all the domain controllers in a domain that are also Global Catalog Servers:

DsQuery Server -domain domain_name.com -isgc

To list the domain controller in the forest that holds the Schema FSMO:

DsQuery Server -Forest -hasfsmo schema

Note: Use the ">" to store the output to a text file. The below command will store all the domain controller names in AllDCs.txt.

DsQuery Server -Forest > AllDCs.txt

About Nirmal Sharma

Nirmal is a Microsoft MVP in Directory Services and working as a Technical Architect/Consultant. He has been involved in Microsoft Technologies since 1994 and followed the progression of Microsoft Operating Systems and software. He is specialized in Directory Services, Microsoft Clustering, SQL, MOM, Exchange and Citrix. In his spare time, he likes to help others and write "internal" technical articles, white papers and tips on various Microsoft technologies. You can contact him at nirmal_sharma@mvps.org.