Remove Exchange 2010 from a server where Active Directory does not exist anymore

Question

Someone did a dcpromo and removed Active Directory on a box that's running Exchange 2010 before removing Exchange (why it was also a DC, I have no idea).

My only goal is to salvage the OS install; the server is now a "loaner" Windows Workgroup server (2008 R2 Standard) and has some other apps on it I'd rather not have to reinstall.

I've tried disabling all the Exchange services, but the uninstaller still complains about not finding the DC. I suppose I could just leave the services disabled, but I'd rather cleanly remove Exchange if possible.

Any ideas?

Can you re-promote it to try to remove Exchange when it's a DC again? — Shane Madden, Aug 25 '12 at 19:38
No sure if any of the AD objects that Exchange requires will be there in a new AD domain/forest. — gravyface, Aug 25 '12 at 20:14
Have you adjusted the DNS config on the server to point to some other internal DNS? — Vick Vega, Aug 26 '12 at 23:59

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 25 '12 at 22:51

Sounds like you don't want to salvage anything Exchange related on the box. If so, why not forcibly remove the services using sc delete, remove any orphaned keys under HKLM\System\CurrentContolSet\Services, then blow away the HKLM\Software\Exchange and HKLM\Software\Exchange Server keys. Finally, delete the binaries from the disk.

Normally, the biggest concern about buggered up MSEXCH installs is tidying up AD, but it looks like this isn't an issue...

Perfect. Let me give that a shot on Monday. – gravyface Aug 25 '12 at 23:41 — gravyface, Aug 25 '12 at 23:41

Remove Exchange 2010 from a server where Active Directory does not exist anymore

1 Answers1