Decommisioning Servers

[Michael Miazga]

I'm about to decommission two servers, would you recommend I remove them
from the domain to remove their accounts from AD, or is there a best way to
decommission a server?

 

[Jorge Silva]

Hi

- Transfer any fsmo roles olded by the servers to be removed

How to view and transfer FSMO roles in Windows Server 2003

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324801/en-us

-Make sure that you have at least one GC on your forest.

- Transfer any other services that you might have on the old DC (like;
DNS, DHCP, Wins, DFS, etc).
- Take the old server offline; confirm that everything works with the old
server offline.
- If everything OK, use Dcpromo to remove the old DC from network, (Ps:
don't
forget to remove it manually from Active Directory Sites and Services)


Check:
Decommissioning a Domain Controller
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Windo...bf98-4a80-8718-dd80dc1071fd1033.mspx?mfr=true

--
I hope that the information above helps you

Good Luck
Jorge Silva
MCSA
Systems Administrator

 

[=?ISO-8859-15?Q?=22Frank_R=F6der_=5BMVP=5D=22?=]

Hi

- Transfer any fsmo roles olded by the servers to be removed

How to view and transfer FSMO roles in Windows Server 2003

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324801/en-us

-Make sure that you have at least one GC on your forest.

- Transfer any other services that you might have on the old DC (like;
DNS, DHCP, Wins, DFS, etc).
- Take the old server offline; confirm that everything works with the old
server offline.
- If everything OK, use Dcpromo to remove the old DC from network, (Ps:
don't
forget to remove it manually from Active Directory Sites and Services)


Check:
Decommissioning a Domain Controller
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Windo...bf98-4a80-8718-dd80dc1071fd1033.mspx?mfr=true

adding to Jorges valid response:

Dont forget to export the *EFS* certificate. If one of these two dcs is
the first dc that was installed in your domain then the EFS certificate
resides locally on that dc. When you remove the dc before you export the
efs certificate you will loose it. Without this certificate you are not
able to recover efs encrypted files.

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;241201&x=5&y=13

 

[Michael Miazga]

thanks, that EFS info is good stuff.. I did have to do that as one of the
servers was the first AD DC in the domain. Nice catch.

Now just have the problem with the MSMQ service still showing up in AD under
one of the servers, so I can't delete that server in sites and services..
still trying to figure out how to remove that service there.. it uninstalled
fine from the server itself..

 

[Michael Miazga]

I was able to delete the MSMQ settings, then delete the server in sites and
services. Thanks all for your help.

 

[Yusuf Dikmenoglu]

I was able to delete the MSMQ settings, then delete the server in

sites and services.

But if you want a guarantee, than check your AD
with NTDSUTIL:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216498/en-us

 

[Jorge Silva]

glad i could help

--
I hope that the information above helps you

Good Luck
Jorge Silva
MCSA
Systems Administrator