How can i verify if a server is a domain controller

[fox1977]

Hi there,

 

We are running a windows 2003 network of 12 servers in our datacentre. We definitely have domain controller but people in our office are saying that two of the servers should be running as domain controllers. The problem is I know the second domain controller is not setup properly as i had to reboot the domain controller yesterday and when it was rebooting I could not authenticate on the network.

 

In the active directory both of the servers are in the domain controllers OU. I don't think that the supplier has configured the second domain controller properly. All i think they have done is move the computer into the active directory OU.

 

How can I verifiy what they have done to try and get to resolve the issue so that the second servers works as a domain controller. Is it just a case of running DCPROMO on the second server?

 

Any tips and advice greatly appreciated.

 

thanks

 

john

[Grommit]

which one has the FSMO roles ? and which has the Global Catalogue

[User3204]

At logon, Member servers allow you to logon to the domain or the local server.

 

DCs will only allow you to logon to the domain.

[Geoff]

Run dcdiag.

[phreak]

Or run Dcpromo. If it is already a a domain controller it will say so on the first screen

[User3204]

Actually it might be useful to check which machines the domain thinks are DCs. We had a situation where the server knew it wasn't a DC, but the AD stuff thought it was, we eventually had to remove the server completely from the network and reinstall it, as this cleaned up all the bogus entries.

 

If you check in Active Directory "Sites and Services" (or possible "Domains and Trusts", I can never remember which is which), it will list the DCs and the Global Catalog servers.

 

The Global Catalogs are the machines that process logons for computers/users, it may be that you have a server that is set as a DC but not set as a Global Catalog.