skbarnard
asked on
Exchange uninstall error
I'm trying to decommission one of our Exchange 2010 servers. I've encountered several errors, most of which I've been able to resolve except for 2 that seem intertwined and pointing to each other.
When I try to uninstall Exchange through the control panel - programs and features, it fails when doing the readiness check for the mailbox role with the error - (paraphrased) - this computer is part of a cluster and must be removed from the database availability group.
So I use powershell to issue the command "remove-DatabaseAvailabili
As you can see, it appears to be a viscious circle - can anyone help me get of this merry-go-round?
ExchangeUnistallErrors.pdf
When I try to uninstall Exchange through the control panel - programs and features, it fails when doing the readiness check for the mailbox role with the error - (paraphrased) - this computer is part of a cluster and must be removed from the database availability group.
So I use powershell to issue the command "remove-DatabaseAvailabili
As you can see, it appears to be a viscious circle - can anyone help me get of this merry-go-round?
ExchangeUnistallErrors.pdf
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ASKER
Before I accept a solution -- VB ITS - your solution did indeed let me remove the server from the cluster but I only wanted to uninstall Exchange from that particular server.
It appears that once this node was removed from the cluster, it may have removed the whole cluster or may have uninstalled Exchange from all nodes.
I now am receiving the attached error when trying to open the EMC on one of the 2 remaining nodes. Can either of you or anyone else help me understand how to get around this?
ExchangeErrorAfterUnistallOneNodefromClu
It appears that once this node was removed from the cluster, it may have removed the whole cluster or may have uninstalled Exchange from all nodes.
I now am receiving the attached error when trying to open the EMC on one of the 2 remaining nodes. Can either of you or anyone else help me understand how to get around this?
ExchangeErrorAfterUnistallOneNodefromClu
ASKER
OK, long pause before getting back to this question. I'm now trying to decommission my remaining 2 Exchange 2010 servers. I'm trying to uninstall via the control panel/programs and features area. When I click on Exchange 2010 and click 'Uninstall', the wizard starts up and runs its checks. I run into errors and close things down as the errors come up but the wizard still thinks that the node 2 server has connectors associated with it. The node 2 server is part of a cluster, I haven't turned off the cluster services but I have disabled all connectors on this node.
Since it was causing a problem, I researched 'uninstall Exchange 2010' and found an article that said to manually remove registry keys. I don't think we're ever going to install Exchange again but I still want to decommission these servers properly.
However, I did go ahead and remove the Exchange registry keys (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\E
My plan is to re-purpose the servers in the Exchange cluster. I'm currently trying to uninstall Exchange from our remaining node and get the error that I can't remove the mailbox role because of the OAB. How can I remove the mailbox role - do I just go ahead and delete the OAB?
Since it was causing a problem, I researched 'uninstall Exchange 2010' and found an article that said to manually remove registry keys. I don't think we're ever going to install Exchange again but I still want to decommission these servers properly.
However, I did go ahead and remove the Exchange registry keys (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\E
My plan is to re-purpose the servers in the Exchange cluster. I'm currently trying to uninstall Exchange from our remaining node and get the error that I can't remove the mailbox role because of the OAB. How can I remove the mailbox role - do I just go ahead and delete the OAB?
ASKER
OK, another comment -- I've been researching this online and found an article (I don't actually know where it is at this point) but I followed the directions in that article. It was something to do with removing a stubborn node from the DAG by doing a registry hack.
I removed the DWORD or whatever from the registry and now I'm unable to uninstall Exchange (through Control Panel - Programs and Features) on that node - the uninstall wizard will not open.
The DAG is actually down (as seen through Failover Clustering on the other node I haven't touched yet) and I'm unable to expand anything out in the EMC (on the untouched node) - it opens but that's about it. EMC will not open on the node that's had the registry hack.
Technically, I'm going to be repurposing the servers in my Exchange cluster so I don't really care that Exchange is not working, but in my research I determined that if you don't decommission Exchange properly, if you ever try to install Exchange again the remnants left by not decommissioning properly can cause issues.
Can anyone help with PS commands or CLI commands or 3 party apps that will help me get out of the mess I've probably created for myself?
I removed the DWORD or whatever from the registry and now I'm unable to uninstall Exchange (through Control Panel - Programs and Features) on that node - the uninstall wizard will not open.
The DAG is actually down (as seen through Failover Clustering on the other node I haven't touched yet) and I'm unable to expand anything out in the EMC (on the untouched node) - it opens but that's about it. EMC will not open on the node that's had the registry hack.
Technically, I'm going to be repurposing the servers in my Exchange cluster so I don't really care that Exchange is not working, but in my research I determined that if you don't decommission Exchange properly, if you ever try to install Exchange again the remnants left by not decommissioning properly can cause issues.
Can anyone help with PS commands or CLI commands or 3 party apps that will help me get out of the mess I've probably created for myself?
ASKER
I know this was a quasi-abandoned question but I am actively seeking advice right now. If I need to open a new question, I'd be glad to but I thought it best to try using this already open thread.
Off for the weekend - hope anyone viewing is having a nice one but looking forward to hopefully some good links to articles that will help me maybe force an uninstall of Exchange.
Thanks!
Off for the weekend - hope anyone viewing is having a nice one but looking forward to hopefully some good links to articles that will help me maybe force an uninstall of Exchange.
Thanks!
ASKER
It's been a long while since I initially asked this question and if anyone pokes down through the thread, they'll see I was asking for some additional advice which to date I haven't received.
I'm accepting the solution from VB ITS since their response did indeed allow me to do what I was initially asking about.
I will open a new thread on a similar topic but with a somewhat convoluted issue.
Thanks
I'm accepting the solution from VB ITS since their response did indeed allow me to do what I was initially asking about.
I will open a new thread on a similar topic but with a somewhat convoluted issue.
Thanks
http://techhead.co/removing-exchange-from-active-directory/