DC Question

[Michael]

Hello all,

I have a network with two DCs, one running 2008 R2 and the other 2003 R2.

The 2008 R2 hosts all 5 FSMO roles, DHCP Server, DNS and Global Catalog.

The 2003 is just a DC, DNS and Global Catalog.

Now here's the problem - The 2003 server has died and at the time of writing I can't get it back online. It doesn't host anything critical, but I would ideally like to get it back online and properly demote it.

All workstations are checking in to the 2008 R2 box for DHCP/DNS, so there are no problems to end users. If I can't get the 2003 server back online, what are my options? Can I safetly delete it from Sites and Services?

I'm just concerned that if I delete it, the 2003 server may/may not contain 'some' critical domain information, which would otherwise be transferred when it's properly demoted. Many thanks!

[Dos_Box]

IIRC, if those roles were shared, then you would have to ensure that the 2008 server was the 'master' for each role. Just to be safe I would seize the roles onto the 2008 server anyway: Seize the operations master role: Active Directory
Then you 'should' be fine. It would be better of course to demote the server correctly, but if you can't then that is the way ahead.

[Mcshammer_dj]

this link should help
How to remove data in Active Directory after an unsuccessful domain controller demotion

As long as you don't try to reconnect the server after cleaning up you should have no problems. That is to say wipe it and totally rebuild.

[Michael]

I personally transferred all roles some months ago and when I run:

netdom /query fsmo

I get the following output:

Schema master               SERVER1.domain-name
Domain naming master        SERVER1.domain-name
PDC                         SERVER1.domain-name
RID pool manager            SERVER1.domain-name
Infrastructure master       SERVER1.domain-name

The command completed successfully.

How can I determine if each role is the 'master'? I'm not sure how you can share roles, unless you mean a different role was allocated to a different DC? This is quite a small network setup, so nothing fancy

[3s-gtech]

I'm not sure how you can determine that - though running the same command gives me the DC that I have set as the master for these roles.

If you can't get the 2003 DC working again, Server 2008 and onwards have tools that make the removal of failed DCs far, far easier than it was with 2003 and earlier - less command line and more *right-click, delete*.

[Michael]

I think 3s-gtech is right What do you guys think of this? Seems simple enough for 2008/2008 R2.