Dsmgmt

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2008

Facilitates managing Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) application partitions, managing and controlling flexible single master operations (FSMO), and cleaning up metadata that is left behind by abandoned Active Directory domain controllers and AD LDS instances. (Abandoned domain controllers and AD LDS instances are those that are removed from the network without being uninstalled.)

Dsmgmt is a command-line tool that is built into Windows Server 2008. It is available if you have the AD LDS server role installed. To use dsmgmt, you must run the dsmgmt command from an elevated command prompt. To open an elevated command prompt, click Start, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.

For most of the dsmgmt commands, you only need to type the first few characters of the command name instead than the entire command. For example, you can type either of the following commands to manage configurable settings:

configurable settings
co s

The short form for each command is listed in the following table.

Commands

Command	Description
configurable settings Short form: co s	Manages configurable settings.
DS behavior Short form: ds b	Views and modifies AD DS and AD LDS behavior.
group membership evaluation Short form: g m e	Evaluates SIDs in a token for a specified user or group.
LDAP policies	Manages LDAP protocol policies.
local roles Short form: lo r	Manages local administrative roles on a read-only domain controller (RODC).
metadata cleanup Short form: m c	Cleans up objects of decommissioned servers.
partition management Short form: pa m	Manages directory partitions.
Popups off Short form: po off	Disables popups.
Popups on Short form: po on	Enables popups.
roles Short form: r	Manages operations master roles.
security account management Short form: sec a m	Manages Security Account Database and duplicate SID cleanup.
set DSRM password Short form: set d p	Resets the Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM) administrator password.
?	Displays help at the command prompt.
Help	Displays help at the command prompt.
Quit	Quits dsmgmt.