Find name of Active Directory domain controller

Question

How can I find out the name/IP address of the AD domain controller on my network?

Answer 1

On any computer, that has DNS configured to use AD's DNS server do:

Start -> Run -> nslookup    
set type=all
_ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.DOMAIN_NAME

Replace DOMAIN_NAME with actual domain name i.e. contoso.com. Read more here.

Answer 2

For a computer that is a member of a domain the Environment Variable LOGONSERVER contains the name of the DC that authenticated the current user. This is obviously not going to be all DC's in a multi-DC environment but if all you want is a quick way to find the name of a Domain Controller then from a command shell:

set l <enter>

Will return all Environment variables that start with "L" including the name of a DC.

Answer 3

DNS should be there exactly for this purpose.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816587/en-us
http://www.petri.co.il/active%5Fdirectory%5Fsrv%5Frecords.htm