XADM: How To Manually Remove a Single Exchange-based Server from Active Directory

This article describes how to manually remove a server that is running Microsoft Exchange from the Active Directory directory service.

In some situations, you may have to manually remove a single Exchange server from Active Directory. Before you manually remove a server, you must move or remove any nonessential objects (such as mailboxes, connectors, or public folders) from the server that you want to remove.

If the server you are removing is a server that is running Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, you must remove any Active Directory Connector (ADC) connection agreements between the Exchange 5.5 server and Active Directory.

To manually remove a server, follow these steps:

1. Start Ldp.exe, connect to a domain controller, and click to expand the following object in the hierarchy:
   Configuration\Services\Microsoft Exchange\Organization Name\Administrative Groups\Your Administrative Group\Servers
2. Double-click the Servers object to view the list of servers in the Administrative Group.
3. Right-click the server you wish to delete (as designated by CN=Server Name), and then click Delete.
4. In the Delete dialog box, ensure that the Extended, Synchronous, and Recursive check boxes have been selected.
5. Click OK. The server object and all its child objects are now deleted from Active Directory.

For additional information about how to manually remove Exchange 5.5, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For additional information about how to use Ldp.exe, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: