Question : FSMO roles in windows 2003 domain

Hi,

was having problems with some replication in our network and someone realized that our original domain controller which had been taken off-line 2 months ago could have been the operations master server so need to seize the 5 roles to a live server in network.  I was also told not to put the infrastructure master role on a global catalog server and noticed that all 3 of the domain controllers have that setting selected under active directory.  My main question is that if i have a dc on the network that is listed as an operations master, how did the roles get transferred to that server when the original dc was offline all this time?  I just don't wanna seize those 5 roles and assign them to a dc that has them already.  I was told you only need one FSMO on domain.  Is there a way to confirm which server is in fact if any is the operations master dc?  Also, i was advised to use Ntdsutil.exe to do this but i noticed that in active directory users...  if i selected a dc in the list there was an option to assign operations master roles to another dc.  Is this a better or easier tool than Ntdsutil.exe?  Thanks and sorry questions are within questions but just don't wanna have to do this if not necessary.

Answer : FSMO roles in windows 2003 domain

for sure man, once the roles have been seized microsoft and every book i have read have said that the old machine should be 100% formatted and not allowed anywhere near the network until wiped clean, I am surprised that you havent had any issues with the Schema master offline so far...

If you are confident in bringing the server back up then thats fine, Dont rely on DCPromo to satisfactorily transfer the role to another server as although this is supposed to happen, the are records of when it doesnt and then your stuck using NTDSUTIL again. Best off doing exactly what you have said, Transfer the Schema Master role and then Demote the old server

i cant really stress enough how important it is to format the old machine though...

all the best