We had a fully functional Exchange 2003 server running as a DC. It was recommended that Exchange Server not be a DC so we ran DCPromo and demoted it. OWA now does not work, and I see many articles saying that the DC role should not be changed on an Exchange Server. What would be the recommended action? Is OWA fixable, or would it be possible to fix by rerunning dcpromo?

Hi, We do recommend customers to move data to another Exchange Server and then demote the original one. Is there any backup now? Can we restore the system to the state before demoting? After you finish restore,please follow the steps below to move Exchange data to another Exchange Server. Remove Domain Controler functionality from server also running Exchange Server 2003 http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=4124473&SiteID=17 Regards, Xiu

Thank you for this reply....we do not have a current viable backup, as too much has changed since the demotion, and, in addition we do not have a suitable server to be able to accomplish a new exchange install, etc. At this time, everything appears to be working on Exchange, and we have found that by using the domain\user login syntax (instead of simply the user name) in OWA it authenticates as well. However, we would like to be able to go back to using simply the user name without the requirement of typing the domain name for OWA login....is there a setting (perhaps in IIS?) to accomplish this? And, are there any other potential issues we should be watching out for? I'd prefer, if necessary to spend some time making sure the current configuration is stable and proper, rather than going back to the previous state, etc. Thank you, Ron