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I have Exchange 2013 (minimal install and all roles are on a single server) on-premises running on a Windows 2012 R2 server (both Windows and Exchange are patched and up-to-date). Basically this system serves as our on-premises hybrid for Office 365 stuff and on-premises SMTP. This server is a VM.

Our AD is at 2008 R2 level and we have a few DC (all of them are GC’s). I am trying to remove a DC from the network but when I shut the DC down, my Exchange server has issues. When I removed the GC from the DC and turned the DC server off, I rebooted my Exchange 2013 VM and I wasn’t able to RDP to it. Luckily it is a VM and I could log on to it using VM tools. When the DC is powered down, I look at the network on the Exchange server and I see that there are no networks available within Windows (location awareness issue maybe?). If I power the DC back up and make it a GC again, the Exchange server works fine (there are other GC’s on the network and associated with this site in AD). I would think that Exchange 2013 should detect that the DC is offline and it should choose another GC but it isn’t. So I tried to exclude the DC that I want to shut down in Exchange (by using the Set-ExchangeServer cmdlet with the StaticExcludedDomainControllers parameter) and that broke the server completely. Once I did that and tried to reboot the Exchange server (it didn’t matter whether the DC/GC was running or not), I couldn’t get Exchange working again. Now there is nothing available in the network connections on the Windows 2012 R2 server side (I guess that is why Exchange services are failing). However, I can ping the server, I can browse network file shares from the server, and other network stuff all from the Windows 2012 R2 server, I just can’t RDP to the server and I can’t get Windows to recognize a network from the server. And now because there is no network connection, I can’t even open the Exchange Management Shell to undo what I did (because EMS cannot get WinRM to work without a network connection) so EMS can’t communicate with the Exchange server and therefore it fails. When the EMS was working, the Get-ExchangeServer cmdlet showed the DC as the OriginatingServer also.

I am now in the process of performing a restore from last night’s backup and hoping that works. I can’t figure out why turning off the DC / GC would cause Windows 2012 R2 to lose the network connection and/or cause Exchange 2013 to not work? And why would Set-ExchangeServer cause this same issue? Is there any known reason for this occurring? What is the proper method to remove a DC/GC from an Exchange 2013 environment?

Thanks

SOSidb
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    What is the Exchange Server using for DNS? Is the DC you're trying to shut down the PDCe? – joeqwerty Jun 05 '15 at 14:00
  • All servers have had their DNS settings updated to point to other DC's and all FSMO roles were moved to other DC's prior. Replication is OK. – SOSidb Jun 05 '15 at 14:13
  • By default Exchange will use any DC, but it can be configured to use a specific DC. Did anyone set that option? HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeADAccess\Instance0\ConfigDCHostName // described here https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff359834%28v=exchg.140%29.aspx – Clayton Apr 26 '16 at 20:24
  • Thanks for the follow up. No, that option isn't set. Never figured out what happened. – SOSidb Apr 27 '16 at 11:04

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