Determine if a DC is a Global Catalog (GC) server

There are several ways to find out if a Domain Controller has the Global Catalog role enabled. In this article, we’ll see how to determine this using the graphical user interface (GUI and PowerShell.

Using the graphical user interface (GUI)

After you connect to DC, open the Active Directory Sites and Services console. Expand the Sites container until you find the DC you want to check. Right-click NTDS Settings and then click Properties.

Here, on the General tab, you can see if the Domain Controller has enabled the Global Catalog role or not.

Using PowerShell

To check on the current DC you are connected to, use the following command.

Get-ADDomainController | ft Name,IsGlobalCatalog

To check all DCs on a Site, use the following command.

Get-ADDomainController-Filter {Site-eq 'Default-First-Site-Name'}} | FT Name,IsGlobalCatalog

To check all DCs in a Forest, use the following command.

Get-ADForest meraki.edu | FL GlobalCatalogs