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Last year I did uninstall Exchange Server from a Windows 2008 server and it didn't go well. After I was finished, the users couldn't log in anymore. I had to recreate all the users 1 by 1. Luckily they were only 8 users. I won't go into the details, the point is, this time, I want to do it right.

I didn't install the server of my current customer. The customer don't use the Exchange server (They use Exchange but through an online service). Exchange server takes a large portion of their available memory. Their memory is always fully used at around 95% and it slows down their server. That's why I need to uninstall Exchange server.

This time I'd like this to go well. So I've did some research. It seams that the proper way to do this is to go in Control Panel: Programs and Features: Select Microsoft Exchange Server 2010: Uninstall : Uncheck all the roles: Wait for some issues to come up about Public folder, Mailboxes, etc. : Resolve the issues: Et Voilà!

Does it look like a plan? If I do it this way will it affect Active Directory users?

Jim_Lafleur
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  • So much wrong with this. 95% isn't 'fully used', that would be 100%. You can't uninstall Exchange from SBS, it will break pretty much everything. Slows down what? Uninstalling exchange won't make your users think the server is 'faster'. – BlueCompute Jul 12 '15 at 13:47
  • When the memory is used at 95% the computers then uses the page file (on the hard drive) a lot more. This slows down the hard drive for other applications because it is constantly used by the page file. The server is then less responsive. – Jim_Lafleur Jul 12 '15 at 13:55
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    Exchange and SQL will both grab any available memory. They're supposed to release it generously as required, so it shouldn't lead to excessive paging. If you uninstall Exchange you will instead see your SQL processes consuming this memory. http://blogs.technet.com/b/maliks/archive/2012/04/25/exchange-2010-store-exe-service-takes-high-memory-utilization.aspx – BlueCompute Jul 12 '15 at 14:10

2 Answers2

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Not sure what I did wrong (well I have an idea :-p )

No, you obviously don't.

It is not recommended to uninstall any of the preinstalled roles of a Small Business Server 2011.

Why would you even want to do that? Why didn't you install a Small Business Server 2011 Essentials in the first place?

Daniel
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  • I didn't install that server. The customer don't use the Exchange server (They use Exchange but through an online service). Exchange server takes a large portion of their available memory. Their memory is always fully used at around 95% and it slows down their server. That's why I need to uninstall Exchange server. – Jim_Lafleur Jul 12 '15 at 13:16
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    This is normal behaviour. There is no SBS 2011 in the world that does not use at least 90% of the available memory. If you remove Exchange, SQL will use all the memory. If the server is slow, my question would be if you have other software installed on that machine, that is running slow. In which case I would tell you, that it is **not recommended** to install anything else on a SBS 2011 server. Because even if the server is unresponsive, it's service run quite fast. Which brings me to the initial question: Is there software installed, or what exactly is running slow? – Daniel Jul 12 '15 at 14:45
  • OK I understand. But let's say I'd really like to get Exchange off the server (Because I want the server as snappy as possible), what would be the proper way to do this? It's not recommended, but is if feasible? – Jim_Lafleur Jul 12 '15 at 14:49
  • This is a Q&A site for professionals. "Questions on Server Fault must be about managing information technology systems in a business environment." Business environments implicate supported environments. Your questions becomes off-topic. – Daniel Jul 12 '15 at 15:39
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Here's what I've done to disable exchange and prevent sql to eat all the memory left by Exchange: -Found all services containing the word "Exchange" in it. Took note of their startup type (auto, demand) -Disabled all services containing the word "Exchange" in it. -Rebooted the server.

The memory was still used at 90%+ cause SQL was set to use as much as possible. By the way this server has 8GB of ram.

SQL's SSEE database : decreased the max it could eat to 512MB:

Open commandline as administrator and entered those lines one by one by pressing enter after each line :

sqlcmd -S \.\pipe\mssql$microsoft##ssee\sql\query -E sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1; GO RECONFIGURE; GO sp_configure 'max server memory', 4096; GO RECONFIGURE; GO EXIT

Sources: http://www.petenetlive.com/KB/Article/0000190.htm https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178067.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

Until now : so far so good : the server was using 97% of the memory all the time and now it's using 55%. And it has 21 less (Exchange) processes to start after each restart. The server is now quite snappy.

Jim_Lafleur
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