Failed Server 2003 upgrade: how to now remove Exchange server?

[Nick Walton]

I want to remove an Exchange 2003 server from my site. It is running on an ML370 G1 box which failed to complete an in situ upgrade from Windows 2000 Server to Windows Server 2003. The standard method to remove Exchange of running the Exchange setup program and unchecking all the Exchange components does not work as Windows Installer seems to be broken. Attempts to fix it using System File Checker also fail.

So, the server is running, thinks it is Server 2003, but with various bits broken. I have successfully migrated all my user mailboxes to another Exchange server. I now want to re-install the failed server but wish to exit gracefully rather than just turn it off.

Does anyone know how to force an Exchange 2003 server to go away when the install / uninstall program doesnâ t work? Or is it OK to just switch it off? If I do shut it down then Exchange System Manager on the other Exchange server still knows about it, of course.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

Nick Walt

[Martin Breidenbach]

Should be possible with AD hacking tools like adsiesit or ntdsutil. I did this once to remove a Exchange 5.5 server which had been uninstalled in the wrong order (so the server itself was gone but AD/system manager still thought that it existed).

But I don't remember the exact steps. There might be something in the MS knowledgebase.

[Nick Walton]

Completed the steps required to remove this server.