Removal of Failed Domain Controller from Active Directory

[neilcorbett]

Hi,

I had 3 Windows 2000 Server domain controllers, 1 of which has now failed. Now this server is no longer required so I do not want to restore it from backup.

However I have still got the failed server in Active Directory because DCPROMO was not run to remove it from the domain. How can you manually tidy up Active Directory to remove the failed servers details?

Thanks

 

[WillShakespeare]

Micro$oft says:

The following steps list the procedure for removing the NTDS Settings object in the Active Directory for a given domain controller. At each NTDSUTIL menu, the administrator can type help for more information about the available options.
Careful: The administrator should also check that replication has occurred since the demotion before manually removing the NTDS Settings object for any server. Using the NTDSUTIL utility improperly can result in partial or complete loss of Active Directory functionality.

Procedure

1. Click Start , point to Programs , point to Accessories , and then click Command Prompt .


2. At the command prompt, type ntdsutil .


3. Type metadata cleanup , and then press ENTER. Based on the options given, the administrator can perform the removal, but additional configuration parameters need to be specified before the removal can occur.


4. Type connections and press ENTER. This menu is used to connect to the specific server on which the changes occur. If the currently logged on user does not have administrative permissions, alternate credentials can be supplied by specifying the credentials to use before making the connection. To do so, type set creds domain name username password and press ENTER. For a null password, type null for the password parameter.


5. Type connect to server servername , and then press ENTER. You should receive confirmation that the connection is successfully established. If an error occurs, verify that the domain controller being used in the connection is available and the credentials you supplied have administrative permissions on the server.

NOTE : If you attempt to connect to the same server that you want to delete, when you attempt to delete the server referred to in step 15, you may receive the following error message:


Error 2094. The DSA Object cannot be deleted0x2094

6. Type quit and press ENTER. The Metadata Cleanup menu is displayed.


7. Type select operation target and press ENTER.


8. Type list domains and press ENTER. A list of domains in the forest is displayed, each with an associated number.


9. Type select domain number and press ENTER, where number is the number associated with the domain to which the server you are removing is a member. The domain you select is used to determine if the server being removed is the last domain controller of that domain.


10. Type list sites and press ENTER. A list of sites, each with an associated number, is displayed.


11. Type select site number and press ENTER, where number is the number associated with the site to which the server you are removing is a member. You should receive a confirmation listing the site and domain you chose.


12. Type list servers in site and press ENTER. A list of servers in the site, each with an associated number, is displayed.


13. Type select server number , where number is the number associated with the server you want to remove. You receive a confirmation listing the selected server, its Domain Name Server (DNS) host name, and the location of the server's computer account you want to remove.


14. Type quit and press ENTER. The Metadata Cleanup menu is displayed.


15. Type remove selected server and press ENTER. You should receive confirmation that the removal completed successfully. If you receive the following error message:

Error 8419 (0x20E3)
The DSA object could not be found

the NTDS Settings object may already be removed from the Active Directory as the result of another administrator removing the NTDS Settings object, or replication of the successful removal of the object after running the DCPROMO utility.

NOTE : You may also see this error when you attempt to bind to the domain controller that is going to be removed. Ntdsutil needs to bind to a domain controller other than the one that is going to be removed with metadata cleanup.


16. Type quit at each menu to quit the NTDSUTIL utility. You should receive confirmation that the connection disconnected successfully.


17. Remove the cname record in the _msdcs. root domain of forest zone in DNS. Assuming that DC is going to be reinstalled and re-promoted, a new NTDS settings object is created with a new globally unique identifier (GUID) and a matching cname record in DNS. You do not want the DC's that exist to use the old cname record.

As best practice you should delete the hostname and other DNS records. If the lease time that remains on Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) address assigned to offline server is exceeded then another client can obtain the IP address of the problem DC.


Now that the NTDS setting object has been deleted we can now delete the following objects:

1. Use ADSIEdit to delete the computer account in the OU=Domain Controllers,DC=domain...

NOTE : The FRS subscriber object is deleted when the computer object is deleted, since it is a child of the computer account.


2. Use ADSIEdit to delete the FRS member object in CN=Domain System Volume (SYSVOL share),CN=file replication service,CN=system....


3. In the DNS console, use the DNS MMC to delete the cname (also known as the Alias) record in the _msdcs container.


4. In the DNS console, use the DNS MMC to delete the A (also known as the Host) record in DNS.


5. If the deleted computer was the last domain controller in a child domain and the child domain was also deleted, use ADSIEdit to delete the trustDomain object for the child in CN=System, DC=domain, DC=domain, Domain NC.

See this information here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q216498

 

[neilcorbett]

Thanks for the reply, active directory now tidy.

Cheers