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Removing old Exchange 2003 Servers after migration to 2007

I am hoping to get some help on this issue. Everything seems to be working just fine in my environment, but I need to do some cleanup. I took over this network after the previous person migrated to exchange 2007. As I am looking at a few things I am seeing some remains of the old servers (MAIL01 & MAIL02) still around. I want to make sure the old server is completely gone from any of the connectors and I have a clean environment. If you look at the 2 attachments you can see that there is still a connector for the old server in the ADSI Editor. Also if you pull up the PowerGUI tool you can still see the old servers that exist. Please let me know how I can completely get rid of all traces of these old servers. The physical machines are not even around anymore.
ADSI-Editor.jpg
PowerGUI.jpg

Here is an article on how to manually remove Exchange 2003. Although you cannot do some of the steps, this is the place I would start for the walk through.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833396

ASKER

I will read through this and see if it helps

Also, if the physical machine are gone, you should be able to safely delete the object in ADSIedit.

ASKER

That is what I wanted to know. Do you have any idea where the MAIL01 & MAIL02 are pulling from in the PowerGUI program. Both machines have been removed from AD and DNS. I just feel it is pulling from Exchange somewhere.

Did you review the hierarchy of exchange objects in ADSIedit? There are probably still a few references to them in there.

ASKER

Since all routing is working properly would it be alright to just remove them from ADSI Edit or should I post if I see others?

ASKER

Is there a way to search the entire hierarchy for a specific value in ADSI Edit?

Since the machines are physically gone, you can safely remove all references to them in AD using ADSIedit. I have done that in the past when cleaning up "inherited" systems. I usually just start at the top of the Services\Microsoft Exchange and delete where I see them.

Good luck!

ASKER

I will do just that. Thanks for your help. I am wondering if I should post under ADSI Edti for other areas too. I have found entries for other servers that no longer exist too, but I do not like to just delete unless I have spoken with someone that has experienced the same thing first.

ASKER

What about these. These are safe to delete you think. The 2 servers are listed here.
ADSI-Editor-01.jpg

If the failure of an object was catastrophic and an organization decided to recreate rather than restore, orphaned objects can easily appear in AD. If I have fully verified the object definitely does not exist, I have removed servers, workstations, printers, etc. from AD. The key is knowing the object does not actually exist. Manual removal of orphaned objects, while hopefully not common, a task on all admin's lists.

Hi

Did you check this one ?

How to Remove the Last Legacy Exchange Server from an Organization (after migration)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb288905(EXCHG.80).aspx

thanks

ASKER

Yes you can see here that there are 2 Administrative Groups

Exchange Administrative Group
First Administrative Group

The 2 servers that no longer exist are under First AG You can see my current servers are listed under Exchange AG. My system is currently running with no problems and those machines (MAIL01, MAIL02) are not even around or running anymore.
ADSI-Editor-02.jpg

I would delete those. that is probably where PowerGUI is pulling from

ASKER

Yes Sunnyc7 all those articles are based on the physical machine being accessible to remove them. Those old machines of mine have been wiped and reallocated for other purposes.

ASKER

I agree ITaaS, but what do you think about removing the entire First Administrative Group since my network is most likely running on the Exchange Administrative Group. Or is that going too far.

First Administrative Group is an object that would have come over with Exchange 2003. I would have to look back through some docs, but I think that is one of the things you can remove once all the Exchange 2003 servers are out of your organization.

Verify there are no objects in use in those other sub containers and you should be okay to delete.

ASKER

I did receive this in the application log once those routing groups were deleted. What do you think. All traffic is still flowing as I tested from my gmail to my company account and received it.
Event-Log-01.jpg

ASKER

There is an encryption setting under Advanced Security and a Public Folders Under Folder Hierarchies, but nothing else We do not use Public Folders and the same settings are under Exchange Administrative Group.

ASKER

Those warning are only on my Hub Transport server. No errors on my Transport server at all. They only appeared the one time too.

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ASKER

I will delete the Admin Group and then update with the status.

ASKER

Deleted it and received no errors or warnings. Checked mail flow and is working both directions. The servers were removed from Power GUI also. Perfect and thanks for your help.

ASKER

I will award you the points and I wish I could award you 500 more as this all just fixed the issue I was trying to resolve with enabling Continuous Replication on my public folder. I was not able to as replication was set and I could not disable. This just resolved that and LCR completed successfully for my public folders now too. Thank you soo much you were very helpful.

mrwarejr - you are VERY welcome. Happy I could share the knowlege I have gained! Deleting things from AD can be pretty intimidating if you aren't sure of what you are doing!