Displays the properties of a site in the directory.

Dsget is a command-line tool that is built into Windows Server 2008. It is available if you have the Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) server role installed. To use dsget, you must run the dsget command from an elevated command prompt. To open an elevated command prompt, click Start, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.

For examples of how to use this command, see Examples.

Syntax

dsget site <SiteCN> [-dn] [-desc] [-autotopology] [-cachegroups] [-prefGCsite] [{-s <Server> | -d <Domain>}] [-u <UserName>] [-p {<Password> | *}] [-c] [-q] [-l] [{-uc | -uco | -uci}]

Parameters

Parameter

Description

Required. Specifies the common name of one or more sites that you want to view. If values are omitted, they are obtained through standard input (stdin) to support piping of output from another command to input of this command.

-dn

Displays the distinguished names of the sites.

-desc

Displays the descriptions of the sites.

-autotopology

Displays whether automatic intersite topology generation is enabled (yes) or disabled (no) for specified sites.

-cachegroups

Displays whether caching of universal group memberships for this site is enabled (yes) or disabled (no) to support logons that do not check the global catalog.

-prefGCsite

Displays the name of the preferred global catalog site used to refresh universal group membership caching for the domain controllers of this site, if universal group membership caching has been enabled.

{-s <Server>| -d <Domain>}

Connects a computer to a remote server or domain that you specify. By default, dsget connects the computer to the domain controller in the logon domain.

-u <UserName>

Specifies the user name with which the user logs on to a remote server. By default, -u uses the user name with which the user logged on. You can use any of the following formats to specify a user name:

user name (for example, Linda)
domain\user name (for example, widgets\Linda)
user principal name (UPN) (for example, Linda@widgets.contoso.com)

-p{<Password> | *}

Specifies to use either a password or an asterisk (*) to log on to a remote server. If you type *, dsget prompts you for a password.

-c

Reports errors, but continues with the next object in the argument list when you specify multiple target objects (continuous operation mode). If you do not supply this parameter, dsget exits when the first error occurs.

-q

Suppresses all output to standard output (quiet mode).

-l

Displays entries in a list. By default, dsget displays entries in a table.

{-uc| -uco| -uci}

Specifies that dsget formats output or input data in Unicode. The following table shows each format.

Value	Description
-uc	Specifies a Unicode format for input from or output to a pipe (\|).
-uco	Specifies a Unicode format for output to a pipe (\|) or a file.
-uci	Specifies a Unicode format for input from a pipe (\|) or a file.

Displays help at the command prompt.

Remarks

If you do not supply a target object at the command prompt, dsget obtains the target object from standard input (stdin). Dsget can accept stdin from the keyboard, from a redirected file, or as piped output from another command. To mark the end of stdin data from the keyboard or in a redirected file, use the end-of-file character (CTRL+Z).
Use dsget to view the properties of a specific object in the directory.
As a result of dsquery searches, you can pipe returned objects to dsget and obtain object properties.
If a value that you supply contains spaces, use quotation marks around the text, for example, "CN=Site 10,CN=Configuration,DC=Contoso,DC=Com".
If you supply multiple values for a parameter, use spaces to separate the values, for example, a list of distinguished names.