How to Find Schema Version in Windows Servers

Introduction

This article lists known Active Directory schema versions and demonstrates multiple methods to retrieve the current schema version of a given forest.

Schema Version Table

Version	Corresponding Windows Server Version
Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)
13	Windows 2000 Server
30	Windows Server 2003
31	Windows Server 2003 R2
44	Windows Server 2008
47	Windows Server 2008 R2
56	Windows Server 2012
69	Windows Server 2012 R2
Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS)
30	Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM)
30	Windows Server 2008
31	Windows Server 2008 R2
31	Windows Server 2012

 56             Windows Server 2012 R2

How to Retrieve the Schema Version

Note: The examples below assume the forest’s DNS name is “techsupportnew.local”.

Using ADSIEdit.msc

1. Start ADSIEdit.msc
2. In the left pane, right-click on ADSI Edit then click Connect to
3. Under Connection Point, select Schema as Well known naming context
4. Under Computer, enter techsupportnew.local
5. Click OK
6. In the left pane, click on Schema [techsupportnew.local]
7. In the middle pane, right-click on c=schema,cn=configuration… then click on Properties
8. Scroll-down to the attribute named objectVersion to see its value

 Using DSQuery

dsquery * cn=schema,cn=configuration,dc=techsupportnew,dc=local -scope base -attr objectVersion

Using REPADMIN

The particularity of the REPADMIN tool is that can show the value of an attribute on all domain controllers. This ensure the replication happened correctly.

repadmin /showattr * cn=schema,cn=configuration,dc=techsupportnew,dc=local /atts:ObjectVersion

Using PowerShell and System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory

[Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName(“System.DyrectoryServices.ActiveDirectory”)
$Context = New-object System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.DirectoryContext(“Forest”,”techsupportnew.local”)
$Schema = [System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.ActiveDirectorySchema]::GetSchema($Context)
$DirEntry = $Schema.GetDirectoryEntry()
$DirEntry.objectVersion

Using PowerShell and Windows PowerShell module for Active Directory

Get-ADObject cn=schema,cn=configuration,dc=techsupportnew,dc=local -properties objectVersion

Using PowerShell and Dell/Quest PowerShell Commands for Active Directory

Get-QADObject cn=schema,cn=configuration,dc=techsupportnew,dc=local -ip objectversion

Or

Get-QADRootDSE | Format-List *

To mimic REPADMIN:

$Root = (Get-QADRootDSE).RootDomainNamingContext
Get-QADComputer -ComputerRole DomainController | Select Name,
@{l=’SchemaVersion’ ;e={(Get-QADObject “CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,$Root” -Service $_.Name -IncludedProperties objectversion).objectversion}},
@{l=’ForestFunctionality’ ;e={(Get-QADRootDSE -Service $_.Name).ForestFunctionality}},
@{l=’DomainFunctionality’ ;e={(Get-QADRootDSE -Service $_.Name).DomainFunctionality}}

Using Registry (from Server 2012)

Server 2012 introduces a registry value named Schema Version and located Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS\Parameters.

This value will reflect the one exposed by the domain controller’s local schema replica of the of the Active Directory it belongs to.