I currently have a single server in an environment. In the process of bringing up this server, I had a test server that I installed and I did a re-install of the production server. When doing management on the (only) server it shows the other two servers in the management console. I am continually prompted to enter a product key for the test server, which no longer exists on the network. There has to be a way to get rid of these objects from the console and I suspsect it involves some alterations to AD. Can someone please give me a hint? George McKee

I would probably just remove the object directly from AD using ADSIEDIT, but here are some articles you might want to read. The first is a blog entry from Michael Smith. http://theessentialexchange.com/blogs/michael/archive/2008/01/04/manually-removing-an-exchange-2007-organization.aspx The other is a thread that discusses an approach I was not aware of, but it is similar to your question: http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=839779&SiteID=17

After I posted this, I started wondering if there was an "official" solution for this. Using ADSIEDIT just to zap the server out of the Servers container in the Configuration partition is not a supported or recommended way to get rid of the server. According to James Chong (an Exchange MVP), the recommended way is to first "recover" the server (setup /recoverserver) so that it is back online and then use setup to uninstall the server correctly. Here is an article from Henrik Walther on this topic. http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Recovering-Exchange-2007-Server-RecoverServer-switch.html

Hi, Please install Windows support tools. We need ADSIEDIT.exe to remove Exchange 2007 configuration server object in Active Directory. 1. Install Windows Support Tools http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/7fd1f478-e072-479c-abfd-9ab4a64f939f1033.mspx?mfr=true 2. Run adsiedit.exe. 3. Using ADSIedit locate the server Object: CN=Configuration, DC= Domain_Name ,DC=com, CN=Services, CN=Microsoft Exchange, CN= <Organization_Name>, CN=Administrative Groups, CN= Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT), CN=Servers, CN=<Server Name> 4. Remove the servers machine account from all Exchange groups: Exchange Servers and Exchange Install Domain Servers. 5. Remove the Exchange Organization Group from the local machines Administrator Group. How to remove Exchange 2007 from a computer http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;927464 Remove-RoutingGroupConnectorhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/69d57b11-4c73-46f2-ace0-d47ff06beb9f.aspx Hope it helps. Xiu

Recovering the old servers is not an option. The machines have already been repurposed. ADSIEDIT snap-in can certainly be used to hack away at the AD, but finding all the objects in AD is slow and painful. Any other suggestions. George

you dont need to same hardware to do a restore, only the same computer account and name, use some virtual technology and create a windows box and then do recover server stuff and finally uninstall.