Hello,

We had a major storage crash recently. We lost a standalone and a DAG member exchange 2010 servers with no backups. With help from support I was able to bring back from a backup our Public Folders which were on the standalone server. We were also able to mount 2 of the databases that were active on the DAG server that we lost. Now everything is working fine.

We run daily a power shell script that reports our Echange environment. This report still indicates the presence of those dead server. I have 2 servers ready to install Exchange 2013 in a new datacenter. I need to know how to cleanup AD of the dead servers before implementing Exchange 2013.  Will orphan objects cause installation issues? I have located the dead servers with ASDIedit @ Configuration\Services\Microsoft Exchange\Domain Name\Exchange Administrative Group\Servers. Is there any other places we should be looking to cleanup?

Thanks,

Hello,

We had a major storage crash recently. We lost a standalone and a DAG member exchange 2010 servers with no backups. With help from support I was able to bring back from a backup our Public Folders which were on the standalone server. We were also able to mount 2 of the databases that were active on the DAG server that we lost. Now everything is working fine.

We run daily a power shell script that reports our Echange environment. This report still indicates the presence of those dead server. I have 2 servers ready to install Exchange 2013 in a new datacenter. I need to know how to cleanup AD of the dead servers before implementing Exchange 2013.  Will orphan objects cause installation issues? I have located the dead servers with ASDIedit @ Configuration\Services\Microsoft Exchange\Domain Name\Exchange Administrative Group\Servers. Is there any other places we should be looking to cleanup?

Thanks,

Its not supported to delete objects directly in AD.

When you worked with support, did they have you run setup with the recoverserver switch? That is the only supported method to bring back a server then remove it gracefully with Add/Remove Programs.

Hi jrbmercier,

am with  Andy David, but it's supported but not recommended.

If you need to clean up your organization from dead exchange servers it's possible.

all exchange configurations are stored in active directory in configuration partition you can access it from adsiedit as you know but this step is very very critical be careful :( 

from ADSI edit connect to configuration partition and get the below path and delete the servers (as you mentioned) you are right :)

CN=configuration,DC=domain ,DC=.COM > CN=Services > CN=Microsoft Exchange > CN=Organization > CN= Administrative Groups > CN=(Groupname) > CN=Servers >

http://blog.dargel.at/2012/02/23/remove-legacy-exchange-server-using-adsi/

and delete the computer objects from active directory users and computers.

that's enough 

Thanks

• Proposed as answer by Josh Lavely 12 hours 54 minutes ago

Hi jrbmercier,

am with  Andy David, but it's supported but not recommended.

If you need to clean up your organization from dead exchange servers it's possible.

all exchange configurations are stored in active directory in configuration partition you can access it from adsiedit as you know but this step is very very critical be careful :( 

from ADSI edit connect to configuration partition and get the below path and delete the servers (as you mentioned) you are right :)

CN=configuration,DC=domain ,DC=.COM > CN=Services > CN=Microsoft Exchange > CN=Organization > CN= Administrative Groups > CN=(Groupname) > CN=Servers >

http://blog.dargel.at/2012/02/23/remove-legacy-exchange-server-using-adsi/

and delete the computer objects from active directory users and computers.

that's enough 

Thanks

Its not supported to do this except under the direction of Microsoft support.

I agree, just kill it out of ADSI Edit.

I agree, just kill it out of ADSI Edit.

Why recommend something that isn't supported and potentially dangerous?  There's a reason that Microsoft does not support going into ADSI Edit and ripping it out manually with any version of Exchange  newer than Exchange 2003 without involvement of support. 

You should follow Andy's recommendation, (reinstall Exchange with the /recoverserver switch) it's what Microsoft specifically supports. 

If you want to ungracefully remove the server, then you should contact Microsoft support  and do so under their direction. 

Hi jrbmercier,

am with  Andy David, but it's supported but not recommended.

If you need to clean up your organization from dead exchange servers it's possible.

all exchange configurations are stored in active directory in configuration partition you can access it from adsiedit as you know but this step is very very critical be careful :( 

from ADSI edit connect to configuration partition and get the below path and delete the servers (as you mentioned) you are right :)

CN=configuration,DC=domain ,DC=.COM > CN=Services > CN=Microsoft Exchange > CN=Organization > CN= Administrative Groups > CN=(Groupname) > CN=Servers >

http://blog.dargel.at/2012/02/23/remove-legacy-exchange-server-using-adsi/

and delete the computer objects from active directory users and computers.

that's enough 

Thanks

• Proposed as answer by Josh Lavely Friday, June 05, 2015 6:34 PM

Hi jrbmercier,

am with  Andy David, but it's supported but not recommended.

If you need to clean up your organization from dead exchange servers it's possible.

all exchange configurations are stored in active directory in configuration partition you can access it from adsiedit as you know but this step is very very critical be careful :( 

from ADSI edit connect to configuration partition and get the below path and delete the servers (as you mentioned) you are right :)

CN=configuration,DC=domain ,DC=.COM > CN=Services > CN=Microsoft Exchange > CN=Organization > CN= Administrative Groups > CN=(Groupname) > CN=Servers >

http://blog.dargel.at/2012/02/23/remove-legacy-exchange-server-using-adsi/

and delete the computer objects from active directory users and computers.

that's enough 

Thanks

• Proposed as answer by Josh Lavely Friday, June 05, 2015 6:34 PM

Thanks Andy, Josh and Hinte for your comments :)

please refer to my comment (it's supported but not recommended) i thinks the words clearly !!!  ............  i mean by supported it's available to do it (i can to open ADSIEDIT and connect to configuration partition and i can delete), also not recommended by Microsoft.
we did it previously with customer had exchange 2007 and we opened ticket with Microsoft support team, they told us we must recover the server again and uninstall the server, according to the customer restrictions they hadn't any additional resources to recover the servers finally i Microsoft removed it from ADSIEDIT without recovery.

am totally appreciate your comments 

Thanks all....