NTDS Replication: How to remove a replication partner?

And again I come to my knowledgable colleagues for help...

Situation: Our SBS 2003 R2 server was installed into an existing domain
successfully and with no known issues. Soon after changing FSMO and GC roles
to the SBS server, the original 2003 DC server crashed, we have no plans to
rebuild as we no longer have a need for the machine.

Issue: New server still attempts to replicate with original server as noted
in AD Sites and Services plug in. Attempts to delete the original server
results in error and instructions to demote original server with DCPROMO (not
an option).

Question: How to remove ALL instances of original server as a replication
partner?

1. Install the Windows Server Support Tools from CD2 of your SBS Media.
2. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216498
1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and then click
Command Prompt.
2. At the command prompt, type ntdsutil, and then press ENTER.
3. Type metadata cleanup, and then press ENTER. Based on the options given,
the administrator can perform the removal, but additional configuration
parameters must be specified before the removal can occur.
4. Type connections and press ENTER. This menu is used to connect to the
specific server where the changes occur. If the currently logged on user
does not have administrative permissions, different credentials can be
supplied by specifying the credentials to use before making the connection.
To do this, type set creds DomainNameUserNamePassword, and then press ENTER.
For a null password, type null for the password parameter.
5. Type connect to server servername, and then press ENTER. You should
receive confirmation that the connection is successfully established. If an
error occurs, verify that the domain controller being used in the connection
is available and the credentials you supplied have administrative
permissions on the server.

Note If you try to connect to the same server that you want to delete, when
you try to delete the server that step 15 refers to, you may receive the
following error message:
Error 2094. The DSA Object cannot be deleted0x2094
6. Type quit, and then press ENTER. The Metadata Cleanup menu appears.
7. Type select operation target and press ENTER.
8. Type list domains and press ENTER. A list of domains in the forest is
displayed, each with an associated number.
9. Type select domain number and press ENTER, where number is the number
associated with the domain the server you are removing is a member of. The
domain you select is used to determine whether the server being removed is
the last domain controller of that domain.
10. Type list sites and press ENTER. A list of sites, each with an
associated number, appears.
11. Type select site number and press ENTER, where number is the number
associated with the site the server you are removing is a member of. You
should receive a confirmation listing the site and domain you chose.
12. Type list servers in site and press ENTER. A list of servers in the
site, each with an associated number, is displayed.
13. Type select server number, where number is the number associated with
the server you want to remove. You receive a confirmation listing the
selected server, its Domain Name System (DNS) host name, and the location of
the server's computer account you want to remove.
14. Type quit and press ENTER. The Metadata Cleanup menu appears.
15. Type remove selected server and press ENTER. You should receive
confirmation that the removal completed successfully. If you receive the
following error message, the NTDS Settings object may already be removed
from Active Directory as the result of another administrator removing the
NTDS Settings object or replication of the successful removal of the object
after running the DCPROMO utility.
Error 8419 (0x20E3)
The DSA object could not be found

Note You may also see this error when you try to bind to the domain
controller that will be removed. Ntdsutil has to bind to a domain controller
other than the one that will be removed with metadata cleanup.
16. Type quit, and then press ENTER at each menu quit the Ntdsutil utility.
You should receive confirmation that the connection disconnected
successfully.
17. Remove the cname record in the _msdcs.root domain of forest zone in DNS.
Assuming that DC will be reinstalled and re-promoted, a new NTDS Settings
object is created with a new GUID and a matching cname record in DNS. You do
not want the DCs that exist to use the old cname record.

As best practice, you should delete the host name and other DNS records. If
the lease time that remains on Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
address assigned to offline server is exceeded then another client can
obtain the IP address of the problem DC.
18. In the DNS console, use the DNS MMC to delete the A record in DNS. The A
record is also known as the Host record. To delete the A record, right-click
the A record, and then click Delete. Also, delete the cname record in the
_msdcs container. To do this, expand the _msdcs container, right-click
cname, and then click Delete.

Important If this is a DNS server, remove the reference to this DC under the
Name Servers tab. To do this, in the DNS console, click the domain name
under Forward Lookup Zones, and then remove this server from the Name
Servers tab.

Note If you have reverse lookup zones, also remove the server from these
zones.

[Olivierb]

of course! thx