AD demotion failed - what to do?

[Wouter]

I have a AD domain with 2 DC's in it. MFServer is my primary (as in:
it has all 5 FSMO roles), the other one is called FPServer.

Last week, the FPServer completely crashed so it had to be
reinstalled. Problem is that it's computer account stayed in Active
Directory. Also, Active Directory (and DNS) still contained info about
FPServer acting as a DC. I reinstalled the FPServer, joined the domain
and right here, I probably made a mistake. Instead of first deleting
the computer account from Active Directory and in DNS, I simply
upgraded FPServer (with DCPROMO.EXE) to become DC again. I hoped this
would overwrite the old settings but that was probably a mistake.
Replication between the 2 DC's doesn't work and more problem are
occuring.

Trying to demote the FPServer to a normal server didn't work either.
When trying to do this, I receive this message: "DSA object could not
be located".

With NTDSUtil and in DNS, I can probably clean up Active Directory but
how can I demote FPServer to a normal server?

What to do? Thanks in advance! If you need more info, please ask.

Regards,
Wouter Jorritsma
The Netherlands

 

[Tony Murray [MVP]]

Wow, sounds like quite a mess

I think the easiest way to deal with this would be as
follows:

1. Remove the FPServer from the network.
2. Perform a metadata cleanup following the instructions
in http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?
scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q2
16/4/98.ASP&NoWebContent=1
3. Reinstall the OS on FPServer, bring it into the domain
and promote it to a DC.

Tony
www.activedir.org

 

[Tim Hines [MSFT]]

In addition to the previous post from Tony you should forcefully demote the
FPServer using the dcpromo /forceremoval switch. That will prevent you from
having to rebuild that server again. The article below will give you more
info about the forceremoval switch.

332199 Using the DCPROMO /FORCEREMOVAL Command to Force the Demotion of
Active http://support.microsoft.com/?id=332199


--
Tim Hines, MCSE, MCSA
Windows 2000 Directory Services

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