Active Directory FSMO role placement

Ahmed Essam 180 Reputation points
2025-02-03T12:49:53.52+00:00

Hello Experts,

We have five domain controllers in HQ site listed as below:

DC1

DC2

DC3

DC4

and two domain controllers in the DR site.

All FSMO roles are placement on DC1.

What's the best practice to distribute the roles.?

Thanks

Active Directory
Active Directory
A set of directory-based technologies included in Windows Server.
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  1. Marcin Policht 39,205 Reputation points MVP
    2025-02-03T12:59:16.58+00:00

    Not necessarily. In a single domain forest your size, there are no meaningful downside to having all FSMO roles on the same DC. There is an argument of splitting them to provide more resiliency, but tbh. considering that you can transfer/seize roles if needed, this argument seems a bit contrived. The primary considerations revolve around making sure that PDC Emulator has access to an external time source (but this should apply to other DCs as well considering that you might want to transfer this role to others at some point). Also note that the Infrastructure Master role becomes irrelevant (all DCs should be Global Catalogs)


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    hth

    Marcin

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  1. Daisy Zhou 31,056 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff
    2025-02-03T12:56:54.2566667+00:00

    Hello Ahmed Essam,

    Thank you for posting in Q&A forum.

    Here is a document about detailed FSMO placement, you can read it.

    FSMO placement and optimization on Active Directory domain controllers

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/active-directory/fsmo-placement-and-optimization-on-ad-dcs

    I hope the information above is helpful.

    If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to let us know.

    Best Regards,

    Daisy Zhou

    ============================================

    If the Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.

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