Simple check to confirm access to a Domain Controller

Question

I'm preparing for a battery of resilience tests on a new network (which will be hosting a mission-critical application).

As part of it, I ought to confirm the resilience of the domain controllers. We have 2 DCs in this environment, and I need to be able to confirm that when I pull the plug on one, the remaining DC takes up the slack.

What is the simplest test I can do to confirm DC2 is successfully covering for DC1?

Would something as simple as gpupdate /force suffice? Or is there a better, simple test? We've got a lot to test so the less we need to do, the better.

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 09 '13 at 11:52

1

You can run the following commands:

Query the domain for the current Primary Domain Controller

NETDOM QUERY /D:%USERDNSDOMAIN% PDC

Query the domain for the current list of FSMO owners

NETDOM QUERY /D:%USERDNSDOMAIN% FSMO

The commands will return the active PDC and DC(s) responsible for various FSMO roles.

edited Oct 09 '13 at 11:52

jscott

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answered Oct 09 '13 at 11:51

ab77

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thanks for the response, but I was really looking for something that would tell me what DC a given server was currently communicating with. With nltest, I could demonstrate that the server was talking to the PDC, but after pulling the plug on the PDC, and could demonstrate that the server was talking instead to a secondary DC. – CJM Oct 11 '13 at 12:27

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 09 '13 at 14:01

0

I've actually found a route that seems simple enough, though I've yet to try it out.

[See http://adriank.org/how-to-find-out-which-domain-controller-my-pc-is-talking-to/]

nltest /dsgetdc:my_domain_name

answered Oct 09 '13 at 14:01

CJM

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Used in anger yesterday - did the trick for me. – CJM Oct 11 '13 at 12:29

Simple check to confirm access to a Domain Controller

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