demoting a domain controller with exchange server installed

From: Ardealul (Ardealul_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 12/13/04


Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 13:39:14 -0800

I have the following question:

How can I demote a domain controller running Exchange Server 2000 Enterprise
Edition without losing ANY data ? Our setup is as follows: 3 domain
controllers (one of which is our "needs to be demoted" domain controller).
replication is functional.
Operating system: Windows 2000 Server (and the one that needs to be demoted
is 2000 Advanced Server)
All domain controllers are for the same domain (in the same tree, same
forest ofcourse)
No sites are used.
The number of mailboxes is kinda huge so a complete reinstallation is NOT an
alternative. The number of client stations already in the domain is also very
large so a migration to a new domain is not wanted -> i'd have to have all
the clients running while deploying the migration agent that comes with the
Active Directory Migration Tool -> this would also imply a second
installation of Exchange and moving all the mailboxes (a couple of tens of
gigabytes)
forestprep and domainprep was successfull when Exchange was first installed
(a couple of years ago)
The actual question is: can something go wrong (i guess that it can, A LOT)
and if so what should i be careful about. i am quite proficient with IT so
don't hesitate in dumping technical info. i haven't done this until now
("demote" an exchange server) and am hoping for a pertinent advice. anyway i
intend on doing a sector by sector backup of all three servers before moving
forward with the actual demotion.

This is due to a complete redesign of our IT infrastructure.

Many thanks for ANY info



Relevant Pages

  • Re: Event 141 NTDS Replication on 2kDC to 2k3DC Upgrade - Blank serverReference attribute
    ... Domain controllers do not demote gracefully when you use the Active Directory Installation Wizard to force demotion in Windows Server 2003 and in Windows 2000 Server ... When you use the remove selected server command in NTDSUTIL, the NTDSDSA object, the parent object for incoming connections to the domain controller that you forcibly demoted is removed. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.active_directory)
  • Re: demoting a domain controller with exchange server installed
    ... > How can I demote a domain controller running Exchange Server 2000 ... Windows 2000 Server (and the one that needs to be ... > The number of mailboxes is kinda huge so a complete reinstallation is ... > ("demote" an exchange server) and am hoping for a pertinent advice. ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.active_directory)
  • Re: W2K DC Rplction prob
    ... d:\i386\adminpak.msi (Server tools for remote management of servers) ... since I could not demote ... > were any lingering issues with that domain controller on ANY of my other ... It has a SAM entry and look s fine ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.active_directory)
  • Re: error 2042
    ... In my opinion The fastest way to replace the DC safetly is to demote the DC ... Restart the server. ... If the domain controller that you are demoting is a DNS server or global ... -Dont forget to export the *EFS* certificate. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.active_directory)
  • Re: How to rebuild a single AD... Please Help...
    ... Also how easy is it to demote the domain controller.. ... Yes you can build a new server and install it as a second domain ... Then demote it as a DC "domain controller" How to transfer FSMO ... The problem is recently we discovered a series of system errors (one ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.active_directory)