Infrastructure Master with Global Catalogs Rundown

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 19:15:14 +0000

It’s a pretty common best practice to not install the Infrastructure Master (FSMO) Role on a Global Catalog Server. This post should help to explain why that is, and the circumstances where you can get away with it.

Global Catalog Review

A Global Catalog contains a full set of attributes for the domain that it’s a member of and a subset of information for all domains in its forest. So basically, what this means is that all of the little attributes that are stored on objects in Active Directory, in the GC’s domain, will be housed on Global Catalog servers. The global Catalog will also have a replica of the objects from other domains in the forest, but only a smaller set of their attributes.

Fsmo on The IT Hollow

Infrastructure Master with Global Catalogs Rundown

Global Catalog Review