Add or Remove the Global Catalog

Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012

You can use the same user interface (UI) in the Active Directory Sites and Services snap-in to add or remove the global catalog. Enabling the global catalog can cause additional replication traffic. However, global catalog removal occurs gradually in the background and does not affect replication or performance.

Membership in the Enterprise Admins group in the forest or the Domain Admins group in the forest root domain, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. Review details about using the appropriate accounts and group memberships at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83477.

To add or remove the global catalog

  1. Open Active Directory Sites and Services. To open Active Directory Sites and Services, click Start , click Administrative Tools , and then click Active Directory Sites and Services .

    To open Active Directory Sites and Services in Windows Server® 2012, click Start , type dssite.msc .

  2. In the console tree, click the server object to which you want to add the global catalog or from which you want to remove the global catalog.

    Where?

    • Active Directory Sites and Services\Sites\SiteName\Servers
  3. In the details pane, right-click NTDS Settings of the selected server object, and then click Properties .

  4. Select the Global Catalog check box to add the global catalog, or clear the check box to remove the global catalog.

Additional considerations

  • To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Domain Admins group in the domain of the selected domain controller or the Enterprise Admins group in the forest, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. As a security best practice, use Run as administrator to perform this procedure. Log on with your lowest-level user account and use administrative credentials when you manage Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS).

  • The domain controller does not advertise itself in Domain Name System (DNS) as a global catalog server until all partial domain directory partitions have been received.

  • You can also perform the task in this procedure by using the Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell™. To open the Active Directory module, click Start , click Administrative Tools , and then click Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell . For more information, see Add or Remove the Global Catalog (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=138333). For more information about Windows PowerShell, see Windows PowerShell (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=102372).

Additional references