Get all Domain Controllers with PowerShell

You want to raise the Active Directory domain and forest functional levels. But, before doing so, you need to check which Domain Controllers are running in the organization and if they run at least a specific Operating System. In this article, you will learn how to get all Domain Controllers in the forest with PowerShell.

Install Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell

Run PowerShell as administrator and run the below command to install Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell.

Add-WindowsFeature RSAT-AD-PowerShell

Important: You need to install the Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell. Otherwise, it can’t load the Get-ADDomainController cmdlet, and an error appears.

Get-ADDomainController cmdlet

The Get-ADDomainController cmdlet is an excellent method to list the Domain Controller in the forest.

Get-ADDomainController

Get all Domain Controllers with full details

To get all Domain Controllers, you must run the Get-ADDomainController cmdlet, including the -Filter string with the asterisk (*).

Get-ADDomainController -Filter *

All the Domain Controllers appear in the PowerShell output.

In our example, we only copied the first section of the output, which is the Domain Controller DC01-2019.

ComputerObjectDN           : CN=DC01-2019,OU=Domain Controllers,DC=exoip,DC=local
DefaultPartition           : DC=exoip,DC=local
Domain                     : exoip.local
Enabled                    : True
Forest                     : exoip.local
HostName                   : DC01-2019.exoip.local
InvocationId               : b44dc8cf-ce37-4046-b908-8504ff700efe
IPv4Address                : 192.168.1.51
IPv6Address                :
IsGlobalCatalog            : True
IsReadOnly                 : False
LdapPort                   : 389
Name                       : DC01-2019
NTDSSettingsObjectDN       : CN=NTDS Settings,CN=DC01-2019,CN=Servers,CN=Default-First-Site-Name,CN=Sites,CN=Configuration,DC=exoip,DC=local
OperatingSystem            : Windows Server 2019 Standard
OperatingSystemHotfix      :
OperatingSystemServicePack :
OperatingSystemVersion     : 10.0 (17763)
OperationMasterRoles       : {SchemaMaster, DomainNamingMaster, PDCEmulator, RIDMaster...}
Partitions                 : {DC=ForestDnsZones,DC=exoip,DC=local, DC=DomainDnsZones,DC=exoip,DC=local, CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,DC=exoip,DC=local, CN=Configuration,DC=exoip,DC=local...}
ServerObjectDN             : CN=DC01-2019,CN=Servers,CN=Default-First-Site-Name,CN=Sites,CN=Configuration,DC=exoip,DC=local
ServerObjectGuid           : 01218cb8-7c17-4d26-bb2a-cc80bc43059c
Site                       : Default-First-Site-Name
SslPort                    : 636

List all Domain Controllers and Operating System

We can add only the objects we want to display in the output.

Get-ADDomainController -Filter * | ft Name,Hostname,OperatingSystem,Enabled

The output appears.

Name      Hostname              OperatingSystem              Enabled
----      --------              ---------------              -------
DC01-2019 DC01-2019.exoip.local Windows Server 2019 Standard    True
DC02-2019 DC02-2019.exoip.local Windows Server 2019 Standard    True

Get all Domain Controllers and IP address

Get a list of Domain Controllers, including their IP address.

Get-ADDomainController -Filter * | ft Name,IP*

The PowerShell output appears.

Name      IPv4Address  IPv6Address
----      -----------  -----------
DC01-2019 192.168.1.51
DC02-2019 192.168.1.52

Filter Domain Controllers

Filter the Domain Controllers and list only the DCs with the Windows Server 2019 Operating System.

Get-ADDomainController -Filter {OperatingSystem -like "Windows Server 2019*"} | ft Name,Hostname,OperatingSystem,Enabled

The output appears.

Name      Hostname              OperatingSystem              Enabled
----      --------              ---------------              -------
DC01-2019 DC01-2019.exoip.local Windows Server 2019 Standard    True
DC02-2019 DC02-2019.exoip.local Windows Server 2019 Standard    True

Count Domain Controllers

Get a count of all the Domain Controllers.

Get-ADDomainController -Filter * | Select-Object name | Measure-Object | Select Count

Export all Domain Controllers to CSV file

You can export a list of the Domain Controllers to a CSV file.

Get-ADDomainController -Filter * | Select-Object Name,Hostname,IP*,Enabled | Export-Csv "C:\temp\All-Domain-Controllers.csv" -NotypeInformation

Open the CSV file with your favorite application. In our example, it’s Microsoft Excel.

That’s it!

Read more: Get Organizational Units with PowerShell »

Conclusion

You learned how to get all Domain Controllers with PowerShell. The PowerShell cmdlet Get-ADDomainController is an excellent way to list all Domain Controllers in the organization.

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