Discover all domain controllers in your AD environment with PowerShell

Scanning AD for Domain Controllers with PowerShell

Creating a PowerShell script for scanning Active Directory (AD) for all domain controllers can be a useful tool for administrators to have in their toolkit. This script can be used to quickly and easily identify all domain controllers in the AD environment, which can be useful for a variety of tasks such as performing maintenance or troubleshooting issues.

Steps for Creating the Script

1. Open the Windows PowerShell ISE. This can be done by searching for "PowerShell ISE" in the Start menu.
2. In the PowerShell ISE, create a new script by clicking on the "File" menu and selecting "New".
3. In the script editor window, type the following code:

   # Import the ActiveDirectory module
   Import-Module ActiveDirectory
   Query AD for all domain controllers
   
   $DomainControllers = Get-ADDomainController -Filter *
   
   Display the list of domain controllers
   
   $DomainControllers

4. Save the script by clicking on the "File" menu and selecting "Save As". Give the script a meaningful name, such as "ScanADDomainControllers.ps1".
5. To run the script, open a new PowerShell window and navigate to the directory where the script was saved. Then, run the script by typing its name and pressing enter. For example:

   .\ScanADDomainControllers.ps1

6. The script will query AD for all domain controllers and display the list of domain controllers in the PowerShell window.

Using this script, administrators can quickly and easily identify all domain controllers in their AD environment, which can be useful for a variety of tasks. Additionally, this script can be modified and extended to perform more advanced tasks, such as collecting information about specific domain controllers or performing actions on the domain controllers.