Decommissioned GC

[Michael Miazga]

Opps. Looks like when I uninstalled AD from one of my servers it was also a
Global Catalog server. I assumed when I uninstalled AD it would uninstall
GC as well. I have two other DCs that are GC servers in my domain. I see
an event id: 9144 in the application event log of my exchange 2003 server:

NSPI Proxy failed to connect to Global Catalog servername.domainname.int
over transport Tcp/Ip. This server is down or unreachable. Clients will not
be directed to this GC until it is available again.

I have already reformatted this server, is there anything else I have to do
to not make it a GC in the domain? This seems to be the only symptom so
far, everything is working fine.. again I have two other GC & AD servers on
the network.

 

[Joe Richards [MVP]]

It isn't a GC. Assuming you ran and successfully finished DCPROMO when
you demoted it is was demoted from being a GC as well. What you are
seeing is Exchange being stupid. It takes a while for it to clear itself
out or you can reboot the Exchange server(s).



--
Joe Richards Microsoft MVP Windows Server Directory Services
Author of O'Reilly Active Directory Third Edition
www.joeware.net


---O'Reilly Active Directory Third Edition now available---

http://www.joeware.net/win/ad3e.htm

 

[Michael Miazga]

Thanks, DCPromo ran successfully, so I'll just ignore the error and
hopefully it will go away..

 

[Joe Richards [MVP]]

Exchange regularly goes and looks at the topology and works out what GCs
are there. If you continue seeing the error, look to verify the NTDS
Settings object was removed from the old DC in the site container. If it
hasn't, delete it. If it has, you may have an issue with Exchange and
the server probably needs to be rebooted.

--
Joe Richards Microsoft MVP Windows Server Directory Services
Author of O'Reilly Active Directory Third Edition
www.joeware.net


---O'Reilly Active Directory Third Edition now available---

http://www.joeware.net/win/ad3e.htm

 

[Herb Martin]

Exchange regularly goes and looks at the topology and works out what GCs
are there. If you continue seeing the error, look to verify the NTDS
Settings object was removed from the old DC in the site container. If it
hasn't, delete it. If it has, you may have an issue with Exchange and
the server probably needs to be rebooted.

I second Joe's analysis and want to emphasize that this is
NO longer a GC if it isn't a DC.

BUT it might be listed if DNS was not properly cleaned up.

Go look through your DNS for the zone and find all references
to this former DC, especially those which are SRV GC records.

Remove any you find. Also be sure to look in all of the _MSDCS,
_SITES, _TCP etc subdomains and remove them their as well.

To make it "NOT a GC" you need to make sure there are no DNS records
claiming that it is a GC.

Make sure the OTHER DC/GC's are properly registered as well.

DCDiag is your friend in checking all of this quickly.

 

[Joe Richards [MVP]]

Exchange should be working out what is and isn't a GC based on querying
the site configuration and then querying the RootDSE of the DCs directly
checking to see if the DC itself thinks it is a currently functioning
GC. DNS shouldn't be causing any issues with the DSPROXY messages.
Definitely though good to clean those records up if they exist because
other processes could be using them.

--
Joe Richards Microsoft MVP Windows Server Directory Services
Author of O'Reilly Active Directory Third Edition
www.joeware.net


---O'Reilly Active Directory Third Edition now available---

http://www.joeware.net/win/ad3e.htm

 

[Michael Miazga]

I do see this server in DNS under the .int forward lookup zone as a NS
entry, however I can't delete the entry..

I also see it in AD under MicrosoftDNS type: DNSNode, I can delete that
entry. Should I?

DCDiag /v ran fine, passed all tests.

 

[Michael Miazga]

Nevermind, I found issues in the properties of the dns server. Once those
were cleared all the entries I was talking about vanished..

Thanks for your help!