How to recover domain controller account?

How to recover domain controller account?

The two common reasons if you accidentally deleted or automatically deleted your Domain Controller are:

1. It has been deleted during the Domain Controller installation.

2. Your Domain Controller is under the steady state for a period of time.

If this is the case, you can use the Dcdiag.exe to fix this. For the second issue, you can utilize the authoritative restore operation but only if you have a backup created.

But if there is no backup available or the account has been deleted while the Dcpromo, try the following solutions below:

1. Run the Dcdiagf.exe. Launch the Command Prompt and use the command below:

Dcdiag /s:localhost /repairmachineaccount

When running this command, the dcdiag will run locally on the machine you want to fix. You should use a domain administrator or have passed the administrator credentials into the Dcdiag.exe via the command-line parameters. So you can still log on to the domain account even if the domain controller is deleted in your machine.

2. If running the first step is successfully done, Dcdiag will make a machine account for the server on the other domain controller under the domain, and it will then replicates the changes through the credentials given. The Domain Controller can now operate the Directory Service Replication.

3. Reduce and then re-progress the server to make sure that the state is correctly rebuilt.

You will be prompted with a message that says, " The Domain Controller's machine account has been successfully restored. Please demote and promote this machine to ensure all state is correctly rebuilt." when the process is successfully done.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/257288