I have a question about seizing FSMO roles from a downed domain controller. Lets say I have Windows 2003 domain with two domain controllers that have the FSMO roles shared between them.One of the domain controllers crash and cannot be brought back up immediately I am going to have to go through a disaster recovery process of restoring from backup and all that.In this situation is it necessary to seize the FSMO roles from the downed domain controller before starting the disaster recovery process? Or if it were going to be a short amount of time (1 day maybe 2) before you get the domain controller back up would it be alright to leave it as is and just bring the server back up and let it resume its roles.Or would it also matter which roles the downed domain controller were hosting as to whether or not it would be necessary to seize the roles or not?Thanks for any helpBill

If you sieze the rolls, it is recommended you never bring that server back online.

Thanks so I take it then it is not necessary if you are bringing the server back online. The domain will continue to function even while that server is down and its roles are down?

Yes, the domain will continue to function. Depending on what server roles the server had you may lose some resources, such as adding computers to the domain. Once you rebuild it and bring it online it should resync with the existing server pretty much instantly.