themightydude
asked on
Demote exchange server
First of all I know that there is a 99.99999% chance that this is going to completely hose exchange.
But we have an exchange 2003 server that is also a domain controller.
We need to get rid the domain controller roles on that server, but everything I have read, said demoting an exchange server that is a domain controller will break the exchange server. However, for some reason they want me to at least try doing this.
What I am going to do before I do this is preform a Physical to Virtual move of this exchange server before I attempt to demote it. That way when it breaks, I can simply turn off the hosed server, and spin up the VM which has not been changed.
My question is this though. When I run the dcpromo and attempt to remove the domain controller roles from this server will this screw up anything in the network that would prevent me from simply turning on the clone of this server I made and have everything back and working again?
Just to avoid confusion, I'm cloning the current working version of the server to a VM. When dcpromo screws up the current server, my plan is to turn on the VM that I made from the working version of the server.
Will that work? My concern is that the DCpromo will somehow change entries and what not on the other domain controller so that it won't look for the exchange server anymore where it is suppose to be.
Thanks in advance!
But we have an exchange 2003 server that is also a domain controller.
We need to get rid the domain controller roles on that server, but everything I have read, said demoting an exchange server that is a domain controller will break the exchange server. However, for some reason they want me to at least try doing this.
What I am going to do before I do this is preform a Physical to Virtual move of this exchange server before I attempt to demote it. That way when it breaks, I can simply turn off the hosed server, and spin up the VM which has not been changed.
My question is this though. When I run the dcpromo and attempt to remove the domain controller roles from this server will this screw up anything in the network that would prevent me from simply turning on the clone of this server I made and have everything back and working again?
Just to avoid confusion, I'm cloning the current working version of the server to a VM. When dcpromo screws up the current server, my plan is to turn on the VM that I made from the working version of the server.
Will that work? My concern is that the DCpromo will somehow change entries and what not on the other domain controller so that it won't look for the exchange server anymore where it is suppose to be.
Thanks in advance!
The time I tried this, running dcpromo to demote a win2003 server with exchange hosed the exchange server because demoting the server erases the instance of active directory and all of the users in it. Not only did it hose exchange, but it also made it impossible to reinstall in my case. I wouldn't recommend it. If you do, you might want to make sure your users are migrated to another active director server and uninstall exchange before demoting it. Then you can try to reinstall it and not have any of the complications I ran into.
ASKER
I have another server that is a secondary DC/AD server.
But when the exchange server gets hosed, I should be able to simply turn on the clone that I made of the working version of the exchange server and be good to go right?
But when the exchange server gets hosed, I should be able to simply turn on the clone that I made of the working version of the exchange server and be good to go right?
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ASKER
Thank you for the responses. Was able to get this canceled.
ASKER
answered