Delete an orphan DC

[aconti]

Hello I had 2 DCs running server 2008R2 and now on of the DCs has been completely formatted and re-installed and is using a different domain. The problem is that I want to use the new domain on the other DC as well but I cannot demote the old domain since it cannot contact the other DC which he still thinks that exists.

How can I demote the old domain so that I can run dcpromo again for the new domain without doing a format preferably.

Thank you

[Jerry]

It seems that you have not perfectly demote the DC that you formatted. You can try to perform a Metadata Cleanup to get rid of the old DCs reference from the AD database. After that follow the instruction in the link below with using ntdsutil to clean it up. After you have completed the Metadata Cleaup procedure, you should seize any FSMO roles the formatted DC used to hold, to the existing one. After that is done, you can also delete its reference from AD Sites and Services.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216498

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/255504

[MattyBoy]

I think that after you have deleted the DC computer object in Active Directory Users and Computers, it should get rid of any references to it from AD.

[aconti]

From ADUC I cannot find any delete option, can you specify exactly.

found it but it tells me that the object cannot be deleted because the snap in is connected to the domain controller that is being deleted.

[aconti]

Hi. I see this is an old thread, but I am having a similair problem. But unfortunately the fix suggested above does not work for me.

I apologize in advance for loaing this thread, but hope it is ok.

Situation:
I got one domain, with a few DCs in. I recently installed a new DC and added it to the domain. It appears in "Domain Controllers" in ADUC. This new DC I am talking about is a Virtual Machine. I had to reconfigure my datastore on the host, upon doing that I had to delete the current datastore to reconfigure the block size.

I therefore deleted the virtual machine, without demoting it first. I realize this was really stupid.
Of course it is easy, even for myself to say that was stupid, I could just have moved it to another host, or even demoted it first... but I didn't know this.

So the problem:
When I try to delete it under ADUC/Domain Controllers, I get "Warning! You are attempting to delete a Domain Controller from ADDS without using AD Installation Wizard (DCPromo). To properly remove the Domain Controller from AD DS domain, you should run DCPromo on the domain Controller that you want to delete", I am pretty sure this is a standard message, but I just want to include it here so you guys have the full story.

The delete button is there, but I can not click it, however if I enable "This Domain Controller is permanently offline and can no longer be demoted using ADDS Inst Wiz (DCPROMO) I can click delete. So far that was suprisingly easy I thought. Then I am asked if I am sure, of course I am, otherwise I would not do it... I click "Yes" and get the following error which I have not been able to get past:

DCserver1 is the mother of all mothers in my domain.
DCserver2 is the server and DC i want to remove/demote from my AD.

"Windows cannot delete object LDAP://DCserver1.mydomain/CN=theDCserver2,OU=Domain Controllers,DC=mydomain,DC=no because: The specifed module could not be found."

I now click "ok" and can not get further. Any help would be really much appriciated.