Cannot delete orphaned domain contorller

windows active-directory windows-server-2003

6,842

Solution 1

You want to go thru the Forcing the Removal of a Domain Controller procedure as specified by Microsoft. You can't just delete the old computer object and have things work properly.

You can't do the "dcpromo /forceremoval" portion because the old computer is already gone, so just ignore that part.

The only part you'll really need to do is the NTDS metadata cleanup portion of the procedure, so you might just skip to that.

Solution 2

Petri.co.il has excellent guides for this.

http://www.petri.co.il/delete_failed_dcs_from_ad.htm

http://www.petri.co.il/forcibly_removing_active_directoy_from_dc.htm

Solution 3

Remove the replication link for the server in AD sites and services. Problem fixed. Try deleting again.

6,842

areo

Student in second year of Management Information System at New York Institute of Technology. 3.5 years as an IT Administrator supporting Microsoft based small business networks. MCSE certified.

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

areo over 1 year

One of the main domain controllers harddisk failed so I had to replace it and reinstall Windows Server 2003 all over again from scratch. Luckily, I have another domain controller layer around.

Now the problem is that I could join the domain because of "The specified user already exists". I went to AC Users and Computers on the other domain controller to delete the old computer name but I received "The object SER1 (or some of the objects it contains) cannot be deleted because: Access is denied" note that I logged in with a Enterprise admin privileges. This is really weird.

Did some internet searching and found that I have to delete the old name using ADSI Edit (adsiedit.msc) but to no avail. I still get Access is denied.

Kindly advice. I am really getting frustrated and I need to use the same old name on the server.

Thanks in advance SZ
areo almost 15 years

Thanks but the forcing removal did not work. I don't know what is the source if the problem here. I even tried running this vbs script microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/scripts/ad/domains/… and while it shows it's a successful process I still see the old domain controller
Spence almost 15 years

What do you mean by "the forcing removal did not work"? Are you receiving an error message when attempt to do the metadata cleanup from NTDSUTIL?
areo almost 15 years

I didnt know how to use "metadata cleanup". Sorry if i miss informed you earlier.
jmservera over 11 years

Can you add more explanation of how and why this fixes the problem.