An FSMO (flexible single master Operation) also known as operations

master roles which give you the flexibility to handle the different
operation in the AD (Active directory). It’s key to prevent the conflict
management within Active Directory database and ensuring a stable
network infrastructure.

There are 5 FSMO roles in Active directory.

 Schema master
 Domain naming master
 RID master
 PDC emulator
 Infrastructure master

Out of these 5, the first two FSMO roles are available at the forest level
while the remaining 3 are available at domain level.

1. Forest Wide Role

 Schema Master
 Domain Naming Master

2. Dome Wide Role:

 Relative ID (RID) Master – one per domain
 Primary Domain Controller (PDC) Emulator – one per domain
 Infrastructure Master – one per domain
Schema Master:

Schema Master Role holds the read-write copy of your Active Directory
schema. AD Schema defines all the attributes of any object like (employee
ID, phone number, email address, and login name) and object can be any
think User computer etc.

Whenever any changes happened in main AD database then schema

master role would be responsible to update /replicate the same to other
domain controller.

For Example: A major change happen in AD database when you

install/configure Exchange server id in your AD network.

Note: As its forest wide roll so it’s available only in one DC of entire
forest.

Domain Naming Master:

This role is used when we need to add or remove the domain in existing
forest. Its ensure the two domain are not added with the same Name.
If domain naming master not available you cannot add and remove the domain
in forest.

This role available in one DC in entire forest like schema master role.

Note: Microsoft recommended keeps both the role (Schema Mater & Domain
Naming) in Same DC for easy administration.

RID Master (Relative identifier)-

It’s responsible to allocate RID pools (Relative identifier) to different domain

controller.
After assigned RID pools to different domain controller, now its domain
controller responsibility to assigning RID to objects. Once Domain controller
used provided RID pools than DC again query to RID for assign new pools.

Note/Scenario: If a DC has sufficient pools of RID to assigning for their objects,

in this situation if RID master role goes down then there will be no issue
because RID already provide pools to DC.

What is RID ?

 RID is pools of sequence number which used in SID or You can also say
RID is the value that ensures uniqueness between different objects in
the AD

SID will look like as shown below in that 500 is RID.

What is SID ?

 SID (Security identifier) - Every objects (Like Computer, user, group) in

AD has its own SID.
 We can also say SID is a unique number which is used in AD for identify
the object in the network.
 If we change the name of any object “like user name from Ravi to
Ramesh” then SID of that particular object will not be change.
 If we delete any object (Like user) then SID will also delete along with
Object, Even if you re-crate a user with same name than SID of that user
will also new.
Note: To avoid conflict, RID master always assigns pools/blocks of 500 to
each domain controller and its depends on number of DC in your network
like DC 1 will get from 1 to 500 and DC 2 will get 501 to 1000 and DC 3
will 10001 to 1500 etc.

It’s just because of avoiding conflict in AD database. For Example: “if we

create two user accounts at the same time in different DC then there will
be chance for these user accounts have the same SID, but since each
domain has its own pool/block so there will no any chance to have same
SID.

https://blog.stealthbits.com/what-are-fsmo-roles-active-directory/

http://techgenix.com/fsmo-roles-in-active-directory/

Primary Domain Controller (PDC) Emulator: