Mastering Active Directory - Second Edition

Seizing FSMO roles

In the previous section, I explained how to transfer FSMO roles from one domain controller to another. But there are certain situations where we will not be able to transfer the FSMO roles, such as the following:

• Hardware failures: If the domain controller that holds the FSMO roles failed due to hardware issues and there is no other way to bring it back online using a backup/DR solution, we need to use seize method to recover FSMO roles.
• System operation issues: If the domain controller has issues, such as operating system corruptions, viruses, malware, or file corruptions, it may not be allowed to transfer the FSMO role to another domain controller, which will also lead to a FSMO role seize.
• Forcefully removed domain ...