Chris is right. Instead of wasting your time, rebuild it and then add it as a member server like before.
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Restoring Active Directory on a Domain Controller
I have really screwed up. I have a domain controller (one of four and not the FSMO holder) that has lost it's way because of me. Here is the scenario:
1) The DC crashed due to a power failure.
2) When I tried to boot the DC after the power came back on, it blue screened on me.
3) I tried several times to get a repair running from Recovery Console but each time failed.
4) I then found out how to remove the server from Active Diirectory using NTDSUTIL. Basically this is a manual DCPROMO
5) THEN I found how to repair the server from the install disks. I didn't think it would work, but it did.
6) Server is up and running, but it cannot act as a DC anymore AND I cannot run DCPROMO on it because of the NTDSUTIL commands I ran against this DC (from another DC).
I'd like this server to act as a DC again, and in fact, the server THINKS its a DC but it really is not. It believes it is a DC and not a member server. I know this because it cannot disjoin from the domain like a normal server or computer.
Any advice as to how I can recover from running the NTDSUTIL commands against this DC?
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Answers
I suggest you rebuild it as well as Chris stated above. The minute you used NTDSUTIL you don't expect this server to be back online. In the future, you should always try to boot it up first. The repair step usually work, after the repair, you may have corruption on your ntds database sometime, but that can also be repair using the ntdsutil. Until you try all these and nothing work, then backup if not do what you did with ntdsutil. Since you have done this backward, your DC will not be recognized by your current AD and vice versa. The cleanest way is to rebuild. Even your backup of this crashed DC will not work as your current AD does not see this DC anymore.
It is pretty simple. as chris said, rebuild is the best way to resolve it instead of repairing it.
Use Ntdsutil on the other DC and remove this DC entries manually
http://windowsitpro.com/ar
Then you could do dcpromo /forceremoval or you can rebuild this server with the same name
Then do the dcpromo to add as domain controller
Even if you opt for ForceRemoval I would strongly advise dropping it from the domain to a workgroup and giving it a new name. The new name is less essential, but we want to be absolutely certain that it gets a new GUID.
I do think that Rebuild is the most sensible course of action. Anything else should only be used if you absolutely need to get the server back on-line without a rebuild.
Chris
OK, rebuilding is not that big a deal as the only other function of this server was for backups.
But is inbarasan correct? Can I reuse the same name if there is no mention (or instance) of the server within the Domain right now? I used NTDSUTIL to demote it, I also removed all DNS entries, and removed the site instance in AD Sites and Services.
So what I plan on doing is destroying this server, and then bringing it up as a member server, then running DCPROMO on the server to create a DC - but I'd like to bring it back up as the same name.
Possible?
Renaming the box really has nothing to do with a new GUID especially if you pull it out of the domain and put it in a workgroup. There is absolutely no reason it needs a new name.
ntdsutil doesn't demote a DC - you need to do a dcpromo /forceremoval on the box for that part. All you did in ntdsutil is remove the references to the DC from AD.
I'd suggest just wiping it as you mentioned.
Thanks,
Bian Desmond
Active Directory MVP
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by: Chris-DentPosted on 2009-03-19 at 05:52:49ID: 23928879
I strongly advise you rebuild it, ideally with a different name. It's far far cleaner than trying to recover from this situation.
Chris