computer is a container and contains objects

[wallst32]

I was cleaning up some invalid domain computer accounts and came a across one that warned me with the following message when I tried to delete it:

"Object COMPUTERNAME is a container and contains other objects. Are you sure you want to delete object COMPUTERNAME and the objects it contains? This operation could take a long time if COMPUTERNAME contains a large number of objects".

This particular system probably hasn't been active on the domain in over a year. Any ideas? Is it safe to delete?

TIA

 

[kmcferrin]

Well, you could always check it out in AD Users and Computers. If you open ADU&C, from the View menu you can select an option for Users, Groups, and Computers as Containers. This lets you view items that are usually objects as containers (similar to an OU). From there you can see what objects exist inside that computer's container. More than likely it will be a printer or something similar that was installed on the computer, then shared and published into AD.

I wouldn't worry about the message too much, but for the effort it's worth a look.

 

[wallst32]

kmcferrin - Thanks for the tip. There is an item in there called "routeridentidy". The object class is rRASAdministrationConnectionPoint.

Looks like it will be safe to delete.

 

[kmcferrin]

Sounds like that computer had RRAS installed on the system at one point.