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Phantom DC in Active Directory Sites and Services

Ran dcpromo.exe to demote a Win 2000 server from a DC to a member server. All appeared to go well, but turns out that the server was still the Global Catalog Server and Exchange refused to start. Checked that the other two DCs (2003) were involved in the 5 FSMO roles and made them Global Catalog Servers. This took care of the Exchange problem; however, now when I go into AD Sites and Services it still shows the old DC along with the other two DCs under Default-First-Site-Name > Servers. No NTDS info with it, though. Can the old DC be safely deleted or is there something else that needs to be done to remove it from AD S&S?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

LauraEHunterMVP

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LateNiteR

You MIGHT need to 'ntdsutil' it to remove it completely from AD. However, if there are no clients looking to this as a resource, it might not be worth you time. Additionally, replication errors might get tedious eventhough things are working well.

Me? I take a clean event log seriously.....I've YET to HAVE ANY....but it's a goal none-the-less.

Brian Pierce

See http://www.petri.co.il/delete_failed_dcs_from_ad.htm for instructions on how to remove non-existant/failed DCs

shawnjoyner

You also want to change a few settings on your Exchange server. If your store does not start it may be from the Exchange server looking for the old GC or DC. Go to ESM\Admin...\Servers and right click going to properties for your server. When you have done this go to the Directory Access tab and change these entrys to reflect the new GC or DC if they are wrong. If they are wrong your store will not start. Also run the metadata cleanup found here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216498/en-us

Shawn

eric4405

ASKER

Ok, after running the ntdsutil, the server isn't showing as a DC. Also, isn't recognized as a DC in AD U&C. Can I assume, as LauraEHunterMVP says, it's fine to delete the object?

shawnjoyner

Trust Lauras judgement shes a good engineer. If she says its OK I dont see why not.

Shawn

shawnjoyner

But as I said before make sure you check the above partial solution before trying to start your store. Your exchange server may still be stuck on a DC and GC thats no longer there. And if that is the case it will not start.

Shawn