PowerShell Code: Active Directory Domain Controller Discovery

There are several different ways to find AD Domain Controllers (DCs).

Here are a few:

AD PowerShell Module: Discover the closest Domain Controller running the AD web services (support PowerShell AD cmdlets):

import-module activedirectory
Get-ADDomainController -discover -forcediscover -nextclosestsite -service ADWS

discover – find a DC
forcediscover – re-discover a DC and not use a cached DC
nextclosestsite – if there is no DC discovered in the local site, use the AD topology to find the closest DC in another site.
service – the DC must support these services.

AD PowerShell Module: Discover all Domain Controller in the domain:

import-module activedirectory
Get-ADDomainController -filter *

Discover all Domain Controller in the domain using ADSI:

[System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.Domain]::GetCurrentDomain().DomainControllers

Discover all Global Catalogs in the forest using ADSI:

[System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.Forest]::GetCurrentForest().GlobalCatalogs

You can also use the Active Directory cmdlets to get computer information about Domain Controllers:

import-module activedirectory
get-ADComputer -filter { PrimaryGroupID -eq “516” } -properties PrimaryGroupID

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