Special Edition Using Microsoft Active Directory

FSMO Placement

Determining optimum placement for your role owners is easy—as long as only one DC is in the enterprise! If not, you'll face a few challenges.

Initially, the first DC in the enterprise holds all the FSMO roles. Each additional DC in the domain and in the enterprise requires additional planning. Some basic guidelines can be followed regardless of other conditions.

The domain naming master should be located on a Global Catalog Server. Because the domain naming master must ensure that no other domains exist with the same name during the addition of a domain to the enterprise, it uses the GC for this function. However, if you have only one domain in your forest, this is not required because all DCs have complete knowledge of all objects ...