Removing clustering on Exchange 5.5 Enterprise?

[bugs75]

Has anyone been through the process of removing clustering from an Exchange 5.5 Enterprise cluster to end up with a single node exchange setup? Is it possible?!

What I'm looking to do is, do away with the current external shared storage raid unit and build an internal raid in one of the nodes as the exchange store (and removing the other node completely). The steps I'm expecting to have to take are:

- Shutdown cluster node to be removed
- Install new internal disks into server to be retained and build raid array (with a different drive letter to current cluster disk)
- With cluster services running, but not Exchange services, copy all of the exchsrvr directory to new drive
- Stop and remove Cluster Services (via Add/Remove Programs)
- Reboot and change new drive letter to the old cluster storage drive letter
- Change the name of the server itself to the old Cluster virtual server name (ie. the exchange server name)
- Add an IP address (same as the old cluster IP) as an alias on network interface
- Reboot and start Exchange services!

I realise this all sounds a bit simplistic which is why I'm checking to see if it is at all possible before I go ahead and ruin everything ! Any advice or suggestions are very welcome.

Many thanks

 

[saiyan9]

I have done this before but with mixed results. Working with MSS, we did it, but it had some minor issues. Try creating another server, but instead of using the same name, give it a new name and use moveuser to move the boxes over to the new server. It may take a little longer, but you will have a healthier server in the long run.