Can't Demote a DC Windows 2000 Server

ANything in the event viewer?

Error: "Not enough storage is available to process this command." - Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Microsoft Windows 2000. This problem was first corrected in Windows 2000 Service Pack 3. It occurs due to a nonpaged memory leak in tcpip.sys. See Q317854.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q317854

Nothing in the event viewer about it and it has sp4 installed.  Should I re-install the service pack?  Yan, is there a hotfix for the leak by itself?

tim

Hmm, I really don'T know, checked all my sources, and nothing. Maybe your version of tcpip.sys got replaced somehow.. you could try to reinstall sp4.. Hmm, that has some small risk tho..

Nope re-installed sp4 and still get same message, i might try installing 2003 server just to replace the system files?  Then demote and format?  It just seems a little extreme.  I could do the manual removal but I hate to do that and mess up AD.

Hi,

Came across this as a solution, don't know if you want to try it: Take backups, and backup registry ie take all normal precautions:
If you have another dc try importing the contents of this registry key from it into the same key on your problem dc
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon registry
Then reboot and try dcpromo again, worth a try prior to forced and removal demotion maybe?

Deb :))

Take a look at these:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;238369

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q332199

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q216498

DCPROMO Fails to demote server

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=828a01c43201%249f68ad10%24a501280a%40phx.gbl&rnum=7&prev=/groups%3Fq%3DPDC%2Band%2B%2522Not%2Benough%2Bstorage%2Bis%2Bavailable%2Bto%2Bprocess%2Bthis%2Bcommand%2522%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26selm%3D828a01c43201%25249f68ad10%2524a501280a%2540phx.gbl%26rnum%3D7

check it out..

Just incase someone else stumbles across this error I'll
post what I did to get it to work.

Basically I exported the
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon registry
key from DC2 and imported it into DC1. Rebooted and ran
DCPROMO and it worked fine.

I am going to try this, but first try returned the same result... makes me wonder if the netlogon service is messed up?  I will try the pdc's netlogon reg entry now.

No dice wont even let me do a force removal, will try to upgrade to 2003 tomorrow, or should i try a 2000 server refresh?

Hi

Depends on what you're trying to do - if there's a replication issue in the domain or a problem with AD then you may well have trouble until you manage to fix the problem. Post any problem event logs that you can find on the server(s) - your existing network needs to be in good shape first. Also how many dc's have you got? Is your pdc emulator ok?- are you looking to integrate a new 2003 server into an existing domain and then dcpromo it?

Also when you said "removed all services" - what did you mean?

Deb :))

We have 1 PDC and one DC here.  Then this server was at another location as a DC + GCS.  I have already replaced this server with a working 2003 DC + GCS and migrated the data.  When I say services, I mean DHCP, DNS, and WINS.  

The DCPROMO will kill:

            IsmServ Service is stopped on [ECFSRV5]
            kdc Service is stopped on [ECFSRV5]
            RPCLOCATOR Service is stopped on [ECFSRV5]
            TrkSvr Service is stopped on [ECFSRV5]

but gets hung with that error on the netlogon service.

Now you are right, we have had corruption of the netlogon service in the past.  In fact, I had to manually copy the files back to the PDC at one point and manually set the location of the sysvol in the registry.  We were getting errors in the FRS log up until recently.  However I thoght I had that taken care of.  I ran a DcDiag on both pc's and everything checked out ok.

I did have this error this morning, but after restarting the FRS service it went away.

Event Type:      Warning
Event Source:      NtFrs
Event Category:      None
Event ID:      13563
Date:            8/9/2004
Time:            4:36:48 PM
User:            N/A
Computer:      ECFSRV1
Description:
The File Replication Service has detected that the staging path for the replica set DOMAIN SYSTEM VOLUME (SYSVOL SHARE) has changed.
 
 Current staging path = c:\winnt\sysvol\staging\domain
 New staging path = c:\winnt\sysvol\staging areas\ecfinc.com
 
 The service will start using the new staging path after it restarts. The service is set to restart after every reboot. It is recommended that you manually restart the service to prevent loss of data in the staging directory. To manually restart the service do the following:
 
 [1] Run "net stop ntfrs" or use the Services snapin to stop File Replication Service.
 [2] Move all the staging files corresponding to replica set DOMAIN SYSTEM VOLUME (SYSVOL SHARE) to the new staging location. If more than one replica set are sharing the current staging directory then it is safer to copy the staging files to the new staging directory.
 [3] Run "net start ntfrs" or use the Services snapin to start File Replication Service. followed by "net start ntfrs".
 

Hi

I think the problem may be if you removed dns - active directory relies heavily on dns, and so I would expect without dns running that dcprom0 would fail anyway, see removing active directory in the link,
How To Promote and Demote Domain Controllers in Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;238369

Hopefully this dead server didn't hold any of the fsmo roles right? If it did and they didn't get transferred you'll need to seize them. Check the role holders for the domain ie where the roles reside - make sure it's an existing dc.

You could try get dns running again properly on this server, then try a demotion again although not having been in this scenario myself I couldn't honestly say if it will work - maybe worth a shot.

Otherwise you may well be looking at just taking it offline and manually removing it from Ad and the domain,

Deb :))

DNS still runs on the other 2 servers do i still need to re-add it to this one you think?

Yes I do - well it's at least worth a try as a manual removal is a pain and not a procedure you want to get wrong ( As I did once when way too tired using adsiedit on fortunately a test system)

If you don't have dns running you don't have rplication, if you don't have replication you can't dcpromo.

Can you confirm that the fsmo roles are held by another dc still happily running on the domain?

Deb :))

Tried the dns server, didnt work.  Will try the upgrade as last resort before manual removal

I really strongly urge you to remove this dc manually before attempting an upgrade to 2003. 2003 does modify the schema but I haven't as yet ever heard it suggested as a cure for a failed demotion, and I really do hope I'm wrong as I get to learn something new. At least take some very good backups before attempting an upgrade because if it goes really pear-shaped then at least you can still get it back to where you are now,
PAQ on removal if dcpromo fails
http:Q_20933592.html

Good luck,

Deb :))

I tried it last night and it worked beautifully... The upgrade went smoothly and when I ran DCPromo it wiped off active directory like it was never there.  Thanks!

Tim

Well that is superb - and like I said I got to learn something new,

Deb :))

What exactly fixed this ?

The 2003 upgrade seemed to fix the netlogon service that had been corrupted.  I am not sure how it fixed it, but it worked.

I also did do the DC registry export / import on all DC's as I noticed the netlogon location was different (could have helped?).  But that did not fix it originally, I also re-added the DNS service.  None of these options worked until the 2003 upgrade.

The other way to demote a DC that errors out is to run dcpromo /forceremoval .

:)

I tried that early on and had the same netlogon error