How to completely remove Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 from Active Directory

You may have to completely remove all instances of Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 from the Active Directory directory service. This article describes how to do so.

Note This procedure will completely remove all instances of Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server and of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 from Active Directory.

For information about how to remove only a single Exchange 2000 Server installation from Active Directory, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

For information about how to remove only a single Exchange Server 2003 installation from Active Directory, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

1. Using the Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Administrator program, connect to all the Exchange 5.5 servers in this site, and then verify that there are no stub objects that indicate to the Exchange 5.5 servers that Exchange 2000 was installed. If the Exchange 5.5 servers discover an Exchange 2000 server, use the Administrator program to issue a delete procedure for the Exchange 2000 server objects, and let this replicate.
2. From an Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later CD, or from the location where the service pack files are located, run Update.exe with the /removeorg switch. For example, type d:\setup\i386\update.exe /removeorg at a command prompt, where d is the drive that contains the Exchange 2000 service pack CD.
   
   Note Exchange 2000 SP2 and later contains a command-line switch, /removeorg, that removes the Organization container and all sub-containers from Active Directory. You can run this switch from Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 2 or later by using the following command: update.exe /removeorg. Additionally, you can run this command from any server in the forest, not just from an Exchange 2000 server. This command does not remove services, files, or registry keys.
3. Shut down the member server or domain controller where Exchange 2000 was installed.
4. Restart the domain controller that you were using to remove the Exchange organization.
5. Allow sufficient time for replication to occur between the domain controllers.
6. Save the setup logs.
7. Rerun setup /forestprep.
8. Rerun setup /domainprep. If this is the same server that was used previously, move the old setup logs out.
   
   Note The user who is logged on must have permissions on the Exchange 5.5 Organization, Site, and Configuration containers.
9. Rebuild the Microsoft Windows 2000 server or use a different one. Use the CD and not an image.
10. Verify permissions in the Exchange 5.5 organization. The user who is logged on must be in the group that was designated during forestprep and must have permissions on the Exchange 5.5 Organization, Site, and Configuration containers.
11. Make sure that you can connect to all the Exchange 5.5 computers by using the Administrator program from the intended Exchange 2000 installation server, and then view the properties of the Exchange 5.5 servers.
12. Remove the Administrator program from this server.
13. Install Exchange 2000.

For additional information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: