How can I quickly determine whether a domain controller (DC) is available for a specific domain?

John Savill

July 24, 2003

1 Min Read
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A. To quickly check for a DC in a specific domain, go to the command prompt and type

nltest /dsgetdc:

If your search is successful, the system will display information about that DC. For example,

C:>nltest /dsgetdc:savilltechDC: \TITANICAddress: \200.200.200.1Dom Guid: 9819e7e4-7beb-41d9-9923-dac38b1d342aDom Name: SAVILLTECHForest Name: ADS.SAVILLTECHDc Site Name: UKOur Site Name: UKFlags: DS LDAP KDC TIMESERV WRITABLE DNS_FOREST CLOSE_SITEThe command completed successfully

If your search fails, you'll receive a failure notice, such as

C:>nltest /dsgetdc:test1DsGetDcName failed: Status = 1355 0x54b ERROR_NO_SUCH_DOMAIN

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