Decomissioning a server

[Dogers]

ok, i hope this makes sense!

current have 3 novell 5 servers, call them s1, s2 and s3. There are four partitions in our domain/context, call them p1, p2, p3 and p4.

s1 is the master for p1, s2 the master for p2 and p3, and s3 the master for p4 (just to be complicated )

Now the problem - i want to remove s1!

As far as i understand it, i need to go make s2 the master for p1, using ndsmanager

then i do the following-
a) At s1 console, type NWCONFIG -DSREMOVE
b) Select DIRECTORY OPTIONS
c) Select REMOVE DIRECTORY SERVICES FROM THIS SERVER

and follow the prompts..

is this all i need to do? can i then completely switch off s1, and not have the other servers whinging they cant find it?

also, in ndsmanager, how do i change actually/safely change s2 to be the master? i can see where/how to change the type, but is there an official/proper procedure to follow? do i change s1 to be read/write (or read only??) first then s2 to be master?

any help much appreciated! (you know, this forum could really do with a FAQ about this!)

 

[djones20]

I think the novell web site support area has a knowledge base article on this issue. I remember that you need to use NDS manager to remove ALL partition replicas from the server you are about to decommission. The NDS manager makes it pretty easy to tell what partition replicas are being hosted on a server and which partition replicas it is the master of. There may be some additional steps I don't remember but I do recall that this was the big one.

 

[marvhuffaker]

the -DSREMOVE switch forces DS off of the server regardless of any error conditions. This might not be best way to do it.

Make sure NDS is clean, move the master replicas off of the server, and then use NWCONFIG without the switch to remove DS. If there are no NDS errors, it should remove very nicely. If you get errors, you need to make sure time is in synch, and that all replicas are synchronizing properly.

You can force any server to be the Master of a replica by using DSREPAIR -A, Advanced Options, Replica and Partition Operations, <WHICHEVER REPLICA>, Designate this server as the Master Replica. I prefer this way over doing it in ConsoleOne or NDSMGR32.

Furthermore, you might want to remove all replicas from the server completely before removing NDS. It will be less complicated. Just make sure that after you make NDS changes, give it time to get back in sync before you try to remove the server.

Marv



Marvin Huffaker MCNE, CNE
Marvin Huffaker Consulting

http://www.redjuju.com

 

[terry712]

strange - i only ever do it from the server as well using the advanced options

never like doing it from console1

 

[Dogers]

another question - this server has groupwise running on it, presumably i need to take that off first? is it just as the novell docs seem to say? in gw view, simply delete everything under that partition (assuming theres no users on there, which there isnt)

 

[terry712]

the groupwise doesnt matter - just delete the objects
from child to parent
as long as there are no users

never noticed you original bit until now

the dsremove switch shouldnt be used
this is to me a last resort switch or if you inherit a server and you dont know pwd or the server is the old server thats just been migrated from or such like
the normal remove ds option will work and then you will login and it will do it clean