DC site coverage count should be retrievable

Contributed by Michael SouleAll contributors →

Part of Active Directory · Active Directory · Domain controllers · All checks

Run this check

Invoke-Maester -TestId AD-DC-01

Overview

Active Directory sites are used to define the physical topology of your network and optimize authentication traffic. Understanding site coverage helps ensure:

• Geographic redundancy: Authentication services are available in all locations
• Network efficiency: Clients authenticate to the nearest DC
• Disaster recovery: Multiple sites provide failover capabilities
• Capacity planning: Proper distribution of DCs across sites

Sites without domain controllers may indicate:

• Hub-and-spoke topology where remote sites rely on central DCs
• Misconfigured site topology
• Missing DCs in satellite offices

Control Type

Operational

Security Recommendation

Review your site topology regularly to ensure all locations have adequate DC coverage. Consider placing at least one DC in each major geographic location to ensure authentication resilience.

How the Test Works

This test retrieves all domain controllers and counts the unique sites that contain at least one DC. It compares this to the total number of sites in the domain.

Related Tests

• Test-MtAdDomainControllerCount - Total count of domain controllers
• Test-MtAdDcOperatingSystemDetails - DC OS distribution information

Details

Every attribute of this check

Field	Value
Test ID	AD-DC-01
Severity	Info
Suite	Active Directory
Product	Active Directory
Feature	Domain controllers
Area	Infrastructure hardening
Resource type	AdSite
MITRE ATT&CK	None
PowerShell test	Test-MtAdDcSiteCoverageCount
Services	ActiveDirectory
Permissions	ActiveDirectory:Ldap:nTDSDSA:ReadProperty, ActiveDirectory:Ldap:site:ReadProperty

Source

• Test: tests/ad/domain-controller/Test.AD-DC-01.ps1
• Documentation: tests/ad/domain-controller/Test.AD-DC-01.md