I have built an AD forest in Windows 2012 and a had an orphaned domain controller. I tried to delete the orphaned dc in the top dc through Sites and Services, but I get an error message, " A referral was returned from the server" and am unable to cleanup the metadata in order to rebuild the domain. How do I cleanup the metadata of orphaned domain controllers with this error?

Hi GiVFTiT,

Thanks for your post.

For removing completely orphaned Domain Controller, you could refer to the article.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/555846

Is the dc you want to want to remove also the last domain controller for a domain?

If so, you could check this article for a reference.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/230306

Best Regards,

Mary Dong

Hi Mary,

Thank you for responding. I have followed the steps to use the GUI and get the error message that prevents me from deleting the server. I wasn't able to force the removal because the server was corrupted and deleted.

Yesterday I tried to use ntsdutil and list the orphaned domains, but when I try to select the target I get "No active site list".

Is there something I missing from the documentation or can you give me more advice?

Hi GiVFTiT,

If your domain controller has corrupted, please try to forece the Removal of a Domain Controller.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731871(v=ws.10).aspx

For your failure Metadata Cleanup, go through the process of listing the available sites, select the site you want, then go through the list of domains and select the domain you want, and finally list the servers within the site and then select the server you want to remove.

The thread is similar to your situation, maybe you could follow for a reference.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/712e57f4-fc32-4304-a99a-641d2c8ec884/ntdsutils-metadata-cleanup-difficulty-windows-2003-server-r2?forum=winserverManagement

Best Regards,

Mary Dong