AD Sites/Servers Domain Controller deletion

Yes delete the one that is long gone.   The one that is powered off if you haven't gracefully demoted it doing that is what I'd do.   How long has it been off?  If it longer than the Tombestone Lifetime you can delete it using metadata cleanup procedures

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc816907(v=ws.10).aspx

Thanks

Mike

when i'm running dcpromo, it gives me the error: "The operation failed because: Managing the network session with [ourprimaryDC.domain.com] failed.  'Logon failure: the target account name is incorrect.' "

I'm logged into this old DC as our primary administrator, which is a member of the domain admins group.  Further, while running dcpromo, i was never prompted to enter any user credentials.  The most i was prompted for was to specify a new administrator password.  I'm not sure what this is for, but it doesn't matter what i enter here, the AD install wizard still fails.  any ideas????

Do you plan to wipe this box or do you want to still use it for something else?   You could use dcpromo /forceremoval  and then metadata cleanup or try and fight through all the errors

I'm trying to fix the secure channel between DCs, per your article (http://sandeshdubey.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/secure-channel-between-the-dcs-broken/).  Am I correct in assuming "Server1" is my current, working DC, and "Server2" is this old DC, which I'm trying to decomission, and which isn't recognizing or perhaps getting replica info from my PDC?

Also, I'm confused by Step #4:
"4. Reset the Server domain controller account password on Server1 (the PDC
emulator).
To do so, open a command prompt and type: netdom /resetpwd /server:server2
/userd:domain.com\administrator /passwordd:password, and then press Enter."

Am I REQUIRED to reset the DC acct pswrd for the user "domain.com\administrator" or can this be any Domain Admin acct within our organization?  We currently don't have or use domain.com\administrator...