how to properly demote a DC located on another site?

LuiLui77
LuiLui77 used Ask the Experts™
on
Hello All,

I will be dismantling one of our branches. In this branch there is a lone DC Windows server 2008 R2, which eventually I will be removing physically, but before I plan to demote it.

This server is on another AD site and is a Global Catalog server but does not hold any FSMO roles.

What is the best way to demote it properly?
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Seth SimmonsSr. Systems Administrator

Commented:
just run dcpromo as you normally would
with no fsmo roles, as long as it can talk to other domain controllers, should be fine
Senior Solution Architect
Most Valuable Expert 2015
Top Expert 2015
Commented:
Dcpromo is the right command used to demote a domain controller for 2008R2 (and below) however, before you do so, you need to make sure that you have a few things covered...
- make sure that if you have users in this site that will be working they need to have proper DNS from another AD site to be able to authenticate on the network
- update your DHCP scopes with the new DNS entries
- update any other servers in that site with the static DNS entries from another AD site
- ensure that replication is clean before demoting (repadmin /replsum, repadmin /showrepl, repadmin /bridgeheads)

Once you have done the above you can safely demote this DC.

Will.

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