Active Directory Cookbook

3.10. Finding a Domain Controller’s Site

Problem

You need to determine the site of which a domain controller is a member.

Solution

Using a graphical user interface

1. Open LDP and from the menu, select Connection → Connect.

2. For Server, enter the name of a domain controller (or leave blank to do a serverless bind).

3. For Port, enter 389.

4. Click OK.

5. From the menu select Connection → Bind.

6. Enter credentials of a domain user.

7. Click OK.

8. From the menu, select Browse → Search.

9. For BaseDN, type the distinguished name of the Sites container (e.g., cn=sites,cn=configuration,dc=rallencorp, dc=com).

10. For Scope, select Subtree.

11. For Filter, enter:

    (&(objectcategory=server)(dnsHostName=<DomainControllerName>))

12. Click Run.

Using a command-line interface

> nltest /dsgetsite /server:<DomainControllerName> 

Using VBScript

' This code prints the site the specified domain controller is in
' ------ SCRIPT CONFIGURATION ------
strDC = "<DomainControllerName>"  ' e.g. dc1.rallencorp.com
' ------ END CONFIGURATION ---------

set objRootDSE = GetObject("LDAP://" & strDC & "/RootDSE")
set objNTDS = GetObject("LDAP://" & objRootDSE.Get("dsServiceName"))
set objSite = GetObject(GetObject(GetObject(objNTDS.Parent).Parent).Parent)
WScript.Echo objSite.Get("cn")

Discussion

Domain controllers are represented in the site topology by a server object and a child nTDSDSA object. Actually, any type of server can conceivably have a server object; it is the nTDSDSA object that differentiates domain controllers from other types of servers. You’ll often ...