Cannot uninstall Exchange 2000

[fenstrat]

I've moved all users and public folders to a new exchange server. When I try to remove exchange off the original server I get this message, "Setup encountered an error while checking prerequisites for the component "Microsoft Exchange 2000"; 0X8007202B (8235): A referral was returned from the server."

Any ideas?

 

[makila]

It's never a good idea to uninstall MS exchange.
In fact you cannot uninstall MS exchange(because microsoft says so!). Uninstalling MS exchange does not work.
Reinstall windows and everything else is the only solution.

 

[fenstrat]

Untrue, I have uninstalled Exchange on many occasions. You do have to make sure that all mailboxes are off the server, and a few other prerequisites. Sometimes you will have to manually remove the server from the diretory through ADSI.

 

[jbud]

I've seen this error before when running LDAP queries against AD. I have always found the problem to be network-settings related (usually DNS). Here are my suggestions:

1. run DC diag from the server you're trying to decommission
2. insure you have sufficient privileges to uninstall a server

If you still can't get the setup /uninstall switch to work, then I would consider manually deleting the server's account from the Exchange servers container, using Exch Sys Manager, followed by ADSIEdit if ESM doesn't work. You can reformat or re-install windows to take care of the server itself.

 

[fenstrat]

The biggest problem is that this is a production Domain Controller, and carries all five roles. I moved exchange to a dedicated exchange server to free the original server for Active Directory. It also has a payroll application running on it. I cannot format and reinstall the operating system. I do have permissions to modify exchange.