How to seize the infrastructure master role in Active Directory

[ChrisUlrich]

Windows 2003 Active Directory domains uses a Single Operation Master method called FSMO (Flexible Single Master Operation). One of the FSMO roles includes "Infrastructure master". When a FSMO role owner goes down and cannot be brought back online, you no longer can transfer the role; you instead have to seize it. To seize a FSMO role you need to use the ntdsutil utility.

To seize the infrastructure master role in Active Directory

1. Open Command Prompt.
2. Type: "ntdsutil"
3. At the ntdsutil command prompt, type: "roles"
4. At the fsmo maintenance command prompt, type: "connections"
5. At the server connections command prompt, type: "connect to server DomainController"
6. At the server connections prompt, type: "quit"
7. At the fsmo maintenance command prompt, type: "seize infrastructure master"

where,

DomainController: The domain controller to which you want to assign the new operations master role. Use only for recovery purposes.

Note: Before seizing the infrastructure master role, use the repadmin command-line tool to verify whether the new operations master has received any updates performed by the previous role holder, and then remove the current operations master from the network.

Note: Do not seize the infrastructure master role if you can transfer it instead. Seizing the infrastructure master role is a drastic step that should be considered only if the current operations master will never be available again.

[Itronix]

One of the problems that you will face you don't seize the infrastructure master role is that the group memberships may be left incomplete. So if you only have one domain, then it will not be having any impact.