A microwave domain characterization approach is proposed to determine the properties of high quality factor optical resonators. This approach features a very high precision in frequency and aims to acquire a full knowledge of the complex transfer function (amplitude and phase) characterizing an optical resonator using a microwave vector network analyzer. It is able to discriminate between the different coupling regimes, from the under-coupling to the selective amplification, and it is used together with a model from which the main resonator parameters are extracted, i.e. coupling factor, intrinsic losses, phase slope, intrinsic and external quality factor.