Get-ADSite from module ADReplication

I found this Module for querying Site objects et al:

ADReplication module

…but have a question about it’s output and the GUI ADSS.

I ran the suggested one-liner from this module:

Get-ADSite “mySite” | fl *

…to try and discover an easy way to identify our domains’ BH servers. The output shows that both DC’s in a given site are in fact both BH servers. Yet, when I look at the ADSS snap-in and right click the properties of the Server object for the Site queried, there is no (IP) transport under the pane “This server is a preferred bridgehead…”

Which tool is accurately identifying the BH server(s)? Can there actually be two? I’m confused by what AD considers a bridgehead server. The ISTG output is accurate against the GUI, FYI.

Thanks

As for…

I'm confused by what AD considers a bridgehead server

… Commonly …
A bridgehead server is a domain controller in each site, which is used as a contact point to receive and replicate data between sites. For intersite replication, KCC designates one of the domain controllers as a bridgehead server. In case the server is down, KCC designates another one from the domain controller. When a bridgehead server receives replication updates from another site, it replicates the data to the other domain controllers within its site

The bridgehead server is a domain controller that has been either administratively assigned or automatically chosen to replicate changes collected from other domain controllers in the site to bridgehead servers in other sites. If you have the need to move a domain controller to another site you have to check if it is a preferred bridgehead server, so you must configure it to not be a preferred bridgehead server before you move the server object.

You can native get BH server information as defined here:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/389thoughts/2016/05/18/search-for-preferred-bridgehead-servers

Note it will not show IPA’s as well.

As far as any custom module providing similar info, that module could simply be constructed an object with any additional information that the author felt was interesting. So, really not a direct comparison to what you may see via a GUI or elsewhere.

Get-ADSite -Name 'Default-First-Site-Name' | Format-List -Force

If you are using any tool that does not give you all you are after, you can simply add that property, in most cases, by using the results from one to get other as a calculated property or custom object.

You can native get BH server information as defined here:

I tried that initially before posting here but that information was not helpful. It came up with {} empty BH servers for all my Sites.
So far I have three different reports then, depending on which tool I use: 0, 1, 2 Bridgehead servers just within the ONE site (2 DC’s) that I am querying!

This article seems out of date as the property (Click Filter, and then, under Show read-only attributes, click Backlinks) doesn’t exist on my 2008 R2 DC

If I use repadmin /BridgeHeads, it shows (1), which makes sense.

If I use the authors Function, it shows (2) BH for the Site.

Can someone show me in ADSIEdit, where this can be determined? Then I can use the tool that matches that output and run a foreach Site to get all of them.

I have not had any W2K8R2 or below servers in over 6 years (I’ve only got 12R2 - 2K19), so, no way to look at this.
However, for the ADSIEdit to look up this sort of thing. See the below.

Inspecting AD replication facilities with LDAP searches ... You can check what with ADSIEdit, if there are any preferred Bridgehead Servers defined. For that, you browse to the ...

‘CN=IP,CN=Inter-Site Transports,CN=Sites,CN=ConfigurationDC=domain,DC=tld’

object and inspect its bridgeheadServerListBL attribute. The list shows you the preferred
Bridgehead Servers that you chose. Don’t worry if the attribute isn’t there, it is a linked
attribute and ADSIEdit might not show it. You can click 'Filter’ and choose Backlinks to be
displayed.

http://www.frickelsoft.net/blog/?p=251

Thanks that was helpful. It seems to really come down to what can be automatically created or may have been manually (custom or Preferred BH) set. The fact I couldn’t see any in ADSIEdit (even with the sneakily hidden “backlinks” option checked, thank you for that btw) tells me that I don’t have any manual BH servers set.

No worries. We do what we can. I have a ton of articles, whitepapers, links, etc., I’ve collected TB’s (every line of code or white paper I’ve written or labs (in Hyper-V and VMware, etc.) I designed/built-out, etc.) over the last few decades in the industry. I keep that stuff around, just in case. ;^}