remove active directory from an old server

[M K W]

Hello,
I have an old server that was powered off and not on the network for a long
time. I did an upgrade for all the servers (hardware) and now I decided to
use that old server again, I powered it on but I didnt put it on the
network, after it booted up, it was Win 2000 server, and I discovered that
it was a domain controller. I dont want it to be configured as a domain
controller, so I run "dcpromo" and I put the tick on the option that this
server is the last domain controller, and after it started to remove it, it
gave an error that it is not the last domain controller on the network, so i
went back and remover the tick, and when it started to remove it gave
another error that it cant find the parent domain controller.
is there a way to remove active directory from this server and use it as a
normal server and login as administrator on local machine?
thanx

 

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

Hello,
I have an old server that was powered off and not on the network for a long
time. I did an upgrade for all the servers (hardware) and now I decided to
use that old server again, I powered it on but I didnt put it on the
network, after it booted up, it was Win 2000 server, and I discovered that
it was a domain controller. I dont want it to be configured as a domain
controller, so I run "dcpromo" and I put the tick on the option that this
server is the last domain controller, and after it started to remove it, it
gave an error that it is not the last domain controller on the network, so i
went back and remover the tick, and when it started to remove it gave
another error that it cant find the parent domain controller.
is there a way to remove active directory from this server and use it as a
normal server and login as administrator on local machine?
thanx

run "dcpromo" with the "/forceremoval" switch. With this switch you
force the removal from active directory on this server. After the
procedure you have to do an metadata cleanup on the active directory
domain. With this cleanup you remove the fragments from the old domain
controller in the actual active directory.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;216498

 

[M K W]

Thank you frank, i did what u told me but still have the same problem. not
letting me to demote it.
any other ideas?

 

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

Thank you frank, i did what u told me but still have the same problem. not
letting me to demote it.
any other ideas?

What is the SP-Level from this machine? Try to install SP4 and run
"dcpromo /forceremoval" again.
When it fails, you can remove the active directory manually.

Navigate to:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ProductOptions]

Change "ProductType"="LanmanNT" to "ProductType"="ServerNT"

Restart the server. Delete the NTDS Folder.
This way is not supported by Microsoft!

 

[M K W]

Thanks alot Frank, problem solved by SP4 method.
thank you again.

Thank you frank, i did what u told me but still have the same problem. not
letting me to demote it.
any other ideas?

What is the SP-Level from this machine? Try to install SP4 and run
"dcpromo /forceremoval" again.
When it fails, you can remove the active directory manually.

Navigate to:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ProductOptions]

Change "ProductType"="LanmanNT" to "ProductType"="ServerNT"

Restart the server. Delete the NTDS Folder.
This way is not supported by Microsoft!

--
Viele Grüße
Frank Röder
MVP Windows Server System - Directory Services
"Ex oriente lux"