De-commission a server

billybob01

Can anyone verify the steps needed to de commission a member server from a domain?

bighornsheep

If it's running Exchange, I think it's more complicated. But if it's simply a server role, you can just remove the role from Manage Your Server in Administrative Tools. To completely remove the member server from the domain, right click My Computer, and in computer name tab, switch to a workgroup instead.

Sie

Just remember if it is home to any shares / profiles / home directoryies etc these are redirected to the correct places.

royal

What roles is this member server playing in your network? File serving, print server, exchange, live communication server, sharepoint, database, application, etc...

billybob01

Well it was running Anti-Virus to the Exchange Server but i looked into that and had to apply exclusions and that was it. So i shut her down for a few days to see if anything came up and all is well. I know it sounds simple enough but this is only my second week as a systems administrator and i feel i need to triple check even the obvious things, hence why i come on to this brilliant site.

LukeQuake

bighornsheep wrote:

If it's running Exchange, I think it's more complicated. But if it's simply a server role, you can just remove the role from Manage Your Server in Administrative Tools. To completely remove the member server from the domain, right click My Computer, and in computer name tab, switch to a workgroup instead.

Any tips on decommissioning exchange from a box? We are shortly going to be migrating from Exchange 2000 to Exchange 2003 onto a different box. Away from the DC (where it currently is) onto a fresh new member server!

bighornsheep

I actually have no experience with exchange at all, but I know that Exchange is a slightly more complicated server role than say IIS because it's more closely related to LDAP architectures, making it more complicated? I guess there's a better explaination for this. Here is what I did find though:

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Migrating-Exchange2000-Exchange-2003-Hardware.html

royal

Good article bighornsheep. I would like to add that there is a very important article linked inside that link you provided regarding decommissioning the first server in an exchange organization. If you are decommissioning your first exchange server in your organazation, make sure you fully read the document on how to do it properly. Your first server in an exchange organization has more responsibility/roles than other exchange servers and you have to move those responsibilities over to another server before decommissioning it.