FSMO stands for the Flexible Siingle Master Operations. The Five FSMO Roles are as follows: There are just five operations where the usual multiple master model breaks down, and the Active Directory task must only be carried out on one Domain Controller. FSMO roles: # PDC Emulator - Most famous for backwards compatibility with NT 4.0 BDC's. However, there are two other FSMO roles which operate even in Windows 2003 Native Domains, synchronizing the W32Time service and creating group policies. I admit that it is confusing that these two jobs have little to do with PDCs and BDCs.
# RID Master - Each object must have a globally unique number (GUID). The RID master makes sure each domain controller issues unique numbers when you create objects such as users or computers. For example DC one is given RIDs 1-4999 and DC two is given RIDs 5000 - 9999.
# Infrastructure Master - Responsible for checking objects in other other domains. Universal group membership is the most important example. To me, it seems as though the operating system is paranoid that, a) You are a member of a Universal Group in another domain and b) that group has been assigned Deny permissions. So if the Infrastructure master could not check your Universal Groups there could be a security breach.
# Domain Naming Master - Ensures that each child domain has a unique name. How often do child domains get added to the forest? Not very often I suggest, so the fact that this is a FSMO does not impact on normal domain activity. My point is it's worth the price to confine joining and leaving the domain operations to one machine, and save the tiny risk of getting duplicate names or orphaned domains.
# Schema Master - Operations that involve expanding user properties e.g. Exchange 2003 / forestprep which adds mailbox properties to users. Rather like the Domain naming master, changing the schema is a rare event. However if you have a team of Schema Administrators all experimenting with object properties, you would not want there to be a mistake which crippled your forest. So its a case of Microsoft know best, the Schema Master should be a Single Master Operation and thus a FSMO role.
FSMO
Windows 2000/2003 Active Directory domains utilize a Single Operation Master method called FSMO (Flexible Single Master Operation), as described in Understanding FSMO Roles in Active Directory. In most cases an administrator can keep the FSMO role holders (all 5 of them) in the same spot (or actually, on the same DC) as has been configured by the Active Directory installation process. However, there are scenarios where an administrator would want to move one or more of the FSMO roles from the default holder DC to a different DC. Windows Server 2003 Active Directory is a bit different than the Windows 2000 version when dealing with FSMO placement. In this article I will only deal with Windows Server 2003 Active Directory, but you should bear in mind that most considerations are also true when planning Windows 2000 AD FSMO roles
Active Directory in general uses a multimaster scheme for updating the directory databases between domain controllers, there are specific functions that can only be performed on specific domain controllers. These specific functions are assigned to one of the five FSMO roles, (pronounced "fiz-moe roles") which can be assigned to one or more Domain Controllers.
The use of the Server 2k3 after migration of Migration of Active Directory 2003 to 2008 is to transfer fsmo roles and to demote windows.
The server which holds the PDC FSMO role it can be viewed by few methods 1. go to admin option->users and computers -> select domain->rt click fsmo roles gives three tabs of domain fsmo role holder. 2 for other roles go to admin option->use site -> forest level roles you can see in the properties of each fsmo role holder. 3. NTDS util will help you to see the roles.
try this command netdom query fsmo (it will show FSMO roles in current Domain) netdom query fsmo /d:Domain FQDN (It will show FSMO roles in other domain mentioned after /d:
Domain Naming Master
Infrastructure Master & RID which consists unique ID to SID of all objects in a directory for all domain's in a forest.
the server which holds the FSMO role it cna be changed by few methods 1. go to admin option->users and computers -> select domain->rt click fsmo roles gives three tabs of domain fsmo role holder-> change from there. 2 for other roles go to admin option->use site -> forest level roles you can cchange in the properties of each fsmo role holder. 3. NTDS util will help you to see the roles and transfer
There is no releation between FSMO roles and replication. However Infrastructure master role replicate the cross domain group membership changes.
First Domain controller in the forest
haw many of each of the roles can I have, per domain, per forest?