How to view the current and retired invocation ids of a Domain Controller

Information:

The invocation id of a Domain Controller identifies the version of Active Directory that the DC is running.  This id can be changed when a domain controller is restored from backup.

 

Solution:

To view the current and retired invocation ids of any DC

repadmin /showsig <DC NAME>

 

Example:

repadmin /showsig dcname1

Output:

Site\dcname1

Current DC invocationID: 120073c5-ec6f-42ca-8650-e2ac243d6468

No retired signatures.

 

“No retired signatures” means that the DC has not been restored from a backup.  If this DC (Active Directory System State) had been restored from a backup the retired invocation ID would be listed.

 

The invocation ID is also displayed in the output of other Readmin commands

 

Example:

repadmin /showreps dcname1

Site\dcname1

DC Options: IS_GC

Site Options: (none)

DC object GUID: d49e49ba-3922-4b77-973d-f49d88253cfb

DC invocationID: 120073c5-ec6f-42ca-8650-e2ac243d6468