Exchange 2007 will not load after secondary dc is demoted or removed
I needed to upgrade a single server (S1) installation from W2K3R2/Exchange 2003 to W2K8x64/Exchange 2007SP1. I setup a temporary server (S2) Running W2K8x64/Exchange 2007SP1 and migrated the PDC roles and the exchange mailboxes. I uninstalled Exchange 2003 correctly from S1 and then demoted S1. I ran ntdsutil and verified that S1 was properly removed from the domain. I edited DNS to remove all references to S1. I installed W2K8x64 on S1, rejoined it to the domain and promoted it to DC. I transfered the roles and installed Exchange 2007 SP1. I moved the mailboxes and uninstalled Exchange 2007 SP1 from S2. I demoted S2, edited DNS to remove any referances to S2, ran ntdsutil to verify that S2 was removed from the domain and shut down S2. At this point Exchange store will not mount until I reintroduce S2 back into the environment and promote it to DC. WTF? What am I doing wrong here? What do I need to do to fix it?
August 3rd, 2010 9:52pm

Hi Check the DNS settings on your Exchange server Have you moved your mailboxes to another server that are up and running? Jonas Andersson MCTS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007/2010 | MCITP: EMA 2007/2010 | MCSE/MCSA Blog: http://www.testlabs.se/blog
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August 4th, 2010 12:54am

I thought it was a DNS problem, but I've been through DNS and there are no references to S2. The mailboxes got moved from S1 to S2 and back to S1. S2 is a temporary server and I want to demote it and remove it fromt he domain, but when I do Exchange locks up and the storage groups dismount and will not remount until I intorduce S2 back into the environment and promote it to a DC. Could there be a reference to S2 left in Exchange that needs to be reconciled?
August 4th, 2010 3:59am

OK. S2 still shows up in the system settings as the DC and GC for Exchange. How do I change it to S1?
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August 4th, 2010 6:22pm

Exchange is very picky when installed on a domain controller. When Exchange is on a DC, it will ONLY use that DC for its GC functionality. Any particular reason why you are installing Exchange 2007 on to a DC? It is against best practises. Have you restarted the Exchange services since the domain controller was removed? System Attendant needs to be restarted to refresh the list of domain controllers. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP. http://blog.sembee.co.uk , http://exbpa.com/
August 5th, 2010 12:00am

Hi, Agree with Simon. If Exchange 2007 is running on the DC, it will only use that DC for its GC functionality. So Exchange will be unable to load the Server Configuration information such as Mailbox store, Transport rules, etc. In Exchange Management Console, you will get the messgae "There are no items to show in this view". How to specify a DC for exchange server: 1. Open EMC, right click "Server Configuration" node, click "Modify Configuration Domain Controller." 2. In "Configuration Domain Controller" section, click Brower and then select the new DC. If the new DC is not listed, please move to the next step: 3. Open Exchange Management Shell, type: Set-exchangeserver -Identify myExchangeServer -domaincontroller FQNDofNewDC Then repeat the step 1,2.
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August 5th, 2010 9:29am

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