Exchange 2013 SP1: Deleting an Exchange Server from Active Directory using ADSI Edit

I had to remove a failed Exchange Server from Active Directory, the server was not going to be brought back online. This is done using the ADSI Edit tool on one of your Domain Controllers. Open ADSI Edit and right click  on the ADSI Edit icon and select Connect to...

Use the drop down list to select Configuration from the Select a well known Naming Context: list. Click OK.

Now expand;

CN=Configuration/CN=Services/CN=Microsoft Exchange/CN=DOMAIN/CN=Administrative Groups/CN=Exchange Administrative Groups/CN=Servers

And right click on the failed server from the list of Exchange servers and select Delete. You will be prompted to confirm you want to delete the entry, click Yes.

Now if you launch the Exchange ECP and browse to Servers/Servers, hit the fresh icon and the Exchange Server will not be removed from the list.

Preparing Schema for Exchange 2013 Error: There was an error while running 'ldifde.exe' to import the schema file (Setup.exe /PrepareSchema)

You are attempting to prepare an environment for the installation of an Exchange 2013 SP1 deployment, the first stage is to run the following command.

setup.exe /PrepareSchema /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

The setup.exe resides on the Exchange 2013 media. The following error is displayed from the Exchange setup.exe,

 

You open the LDIFDE log file from the default location  C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\ldif.log and it states error 0x21a2 The FSMO role ownership could not be verified because its directory partition has not replicated...

 

This error relates to stale or non-existing domain controllers, luckily this is only my lab environment and it so happens I know there was an old DC removed forcibly. The next stage is to find the old computer object of the DC in Active Directory and remove it, tick the box Delete this Domain Controller anyway. It is permanently offline and can no longer be removed using the removal wizard. and click Delete.

 

You should also remove any old DNS records associated with this DC, I also deleted it from Active Directory Sites and Services to complete the removal. Now if you run the command again, it will complete successfully.

 

In a production environment it is highly likely you will have tenth of domain controllers, probably in multiple AD sites. Therefore it maybe a large discovery exercise to resolve this issue if you are experiencing the issue in production.

Tools such as DCDIAG.exe and Replmon.exe can prove useful when looking at these issues.