remove corrupted exchange 2016 member server from DAG

Article
2018-12-04

Question

_{Tuesday, December 4, 2018 7:11 AM}

Dears,

my environment contains 3 exchange servers 2016 configured in a DAG. Im facing issues with one server, microsoft support said to be that it is corrupted as all its services cant be started, so i have to remove it now.

Can you please advise on how to decommission it taking in consideration that it is a DAG member.

And will i face problems in that because services cant be started?

Best Regards,

All replies (3)

_{Tuesday, December 4, 2018 8:53 AM}

Hello

As you guess you have to try to remove it properly.

First you have to remove that server from the DAG by using EAC or PowerShell.

Remove database copies on that server
Remove the server from the DAG.

Now you have to uninstall properly Exchange 2016 from the corrupted server by using control panel or Exchange setup. Depending on your server "corruption", Exchange uninstall process might be unsuccessful and fail before completion.

If the uninstall process fails you only have two options :

Supported method : Try to reinstall Exchange 2016 onto the corrupted Exchange server using "RecoverServer" setup flag.
Unsupported method : use ADSIEDIT to remove "dead" Exchange servers objects from Active Directory.
However unless you are under direct supervision from Microsoft this is not recommended.

Florent

_{Wednesday, December 5, 2018 6:57 AM}

Hello

As you guess you have to try to remove it properly.

First you have to remove that server from the DAG by using EAC or PowerShell.

Remove database copies on that server

Remove the server from the DAG.

Now you have to uninstall properly Exchange 2016 from the corrupted server by using control panel or Exchange setup. Depending on your server "corruption", Exchange uninstall process might be unsuccessful and fail before completion.

If the uninstall process fails you only have two options :

Supported method : Try to reinstall Exchange 2016 onto the corrupted Exchange server using "RecoverServer" setup flag.

Unsupported method : use ADSIEDIT to remove "dead" Exchange servers objects from Active Directory.
However unless you are under direct supervision from Microsoft this is not recommended.

Florent

Agree with Florent, and just add some details:

Ensure that all the databases are mounted on other DAG members, if not, we need to switchover all active database copies from the dead server to a normal one.

Move-ActiveMailboxDatabase -Server <dead_server> -ActivateOnServer <normal_server>

Then remove all the database copies on that server.

Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus -Server <dead_server> | Remove-MailboxDatabaseCopy

Next, remove the server from the DAG:

Remove-DatabaseAvailabilityGroupServer -Identity <DAG_name> -MailboxServer <dead_server>

Finally, uninstall Exchange in the Control Panel or recover the dead server to another new server and then uninstall Exchange there.

Regards,

Manu Meng

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_{Friday, December 7, 2018 10:01 AM}

Just checking in to see if above information was helpful. Please let us know if you would like further assistance.