Can't join domain

check that the computer account is not still in AD, you may have to clean up the metadata to remove it.

if find the computer account still in ad try removing it and then you should be able to add the server back onto the domain.  

Look in AD for the this computer name and delete.

I would also run metadata cleanup on AD to remove any lingering objects for this DC.

http://www.petri.co.il/delete_failed_dcs_from_ad.htm

Let me get this straight.

You installed AD on a server 03 box?
then you removed AD from that box, and removed it from the domain?
Now you are trying to re-join the domain and you get an error?

Does the domain actually have a current working domain controller?
If you go into your domain controller and lookup computer accounts. There should be a computer account with the same name as the server 03 box you are trying to rejoin.

Delete that computer, wait a minute or two and try the re-join

dariusq,

Everything in that post worked up until deleting the object from Active Directory.  It says "access is denied" when i try to delete the server object.

logged in as administrator or super user? Is it a server 2008 domain controller?

Make sure you are running on a functional DC and logged in as a domain admin.

Yeah, it is the only DC (name=Win2003).  I'm logged in as administrator (member of domain admins).

Still get the "The specified user already exists" error when trying to join the domain from the other server (name=STORAGE).

Can I use dcpromo from Win2003 to demote STORAGE from being a domain controller?  Or is that only for the machine that dcpromo is running on?

You remove AD from the server you don't want as a DC you should have ran dcpromo to demote it.

Ok, demoting it was just a thought.  Since AD is not on the server I want to demote, that is not possible - running dcpromo on it will only re-install AD.
Perhaps I should re-install AD on STORAGE and then demote it in order to be able to delete the object?
All I know right now is that I just want to delete the STORAGE object and that is only possible from the WIN2003 machine that still had AD on it.

When you run a metadata cleanup on the existing DC you get access denied? Run a dcdiag to check for errors on this DC.

no, the metadata worked fine, it is trying to delete the object in AD that gives me access denied.

the server is saying it doesn't know what 'dcidag' is.

I have had this problem and renaming was the only way I could get it to join the domain even after the old name was deleated in AD and DHCP server

Hadn't thought of changing the name of the server.

That worked! (duh)  :)