I was asked to remove a child domain at work today. Usually that wouldn’t be a problem but unfortunately the final DC had been wiped and not been dcpromo’d (Cleanly removed from the domain).

So I thought I’d document the process should anyone else find themselves in a similar situation. To do most of the below, you’ll need to be an Enterprise Admin.

1. Remove all the DNS entries for the missing DCs and the child domain. Make sure you get the GUID entries too.
2. Fire up ntdsutil and follow the below steps. When you select a server to connect to, connect to the operation master.
   ntdsutil: metadata cleanup
metadata cleanup:
metadata cleanup: connections
server connections:
server connections: connect to server london.nwtraders.msft
Binding to london ...
Connected to london using credentials of locally logged on user
server connections:
server connections: quit
metadata cleanup:
metadata cleanup: select operation target
select operation target:
select operation target: list domains
Found 2 domain(s)
0 - DC=nwtraders,DC=msft
1 - DC=child,DC=nwtraders,DC=msft
select operation target:
select operation target: select domain 1
No current site
Domain - DC=child,DC=nwtraders,DC=msft
No current server
No current Naming Context
select operation target:
select operation target: quit
metadata cleanup:
metadata cleanup: remove selected domain


   Depending on the exact situation, you may get an error about needing to remove a server first (Sorry, I can’t recall the exact error). If you do, there’s an extra step you need to undertake first.

   ntdsutil: metadata cleanup
metadata cleanup:
metadata cleanup: connections
server connections:
server connections: connect to server london.nwtraders.msft
Binding to london ...
Connected to london using credentials of locally logged on user
server connections:
server connections: quit
metadata cleanup:
metadata cleanup: select operation target
select operation target:
select operation target: list sites
Found 1 site(s)
0 - CN=Default-First-Site-Name,CN=Sites,CN=Configuration,DC=nwtraders,DC=msft
select operation target:
select operation target: select site
Site - CN=Default-First-Site-Name,CN=Sites,CN=Configuration,DC=nwtraders,DC=msft
No current domain
No current server
No current Naming Context
select operation target:
select operation target: list servers in site
Found 1 server(s)
0 - CN=brisbane,CN=Servers,CN=Default-First-Site-Name,CN=Sites,CN=Configuration,DC=nwtraders,DC=msft
select operation target: select server 0

   Then repeat the first process to remove the server (remove selected server).

3. Open up Active Directory Sites And Services and remove any stranded servers.

I was reading Matthew Osburn’s blog a few moments ago and came across a post which I’d like to share:

1. If you ask me technical questions please don’t argue with me because you don’t like my answer. If you think you know more about the topic, why ask? And if I’m arguing with you…it’s because I am positive that I am correct, otherwise I’d just say “I don’t know” or give you some tips on where to look it up, I don’t have the time to just argue for the sake of it.
2. Starting a conversation by insulting yourself (i.e. “I’m such an idiot”) will not make me laugh, or feel sorry for you; all it will do is remind me that yes, you are an idiot and that I am going to hate having to talk to you. Trust me; you don’t want to start a call that way.
3. I am ok with you making mistakes, fixing them is my job. I am not ok with you lying to me about a mistake you made. It makes it much harder to resolve and thus makes my job more difficult. Be honest and we can get the problem resolved and continue on with our business.
4. There is no magic “Fix it” button. Everything takes some amount of work to fix, and not everything is worth fixing or even possible to fix. If I say that you just need to re-do a document that you accidentally deleted 2 months ago, please don’t get mad at me. I’m not ignoring your problem, and it’s not that I don’t like you, I just cant always fix everything.
5. Not everything you ask me to do is “urgent”. In fact, by marking things as “urgent” every time, you almost ensure that I treat none of it as a priority.
6. You are not the only one who needs help, and you usually don’t have the most urgent issue. Give me some time to get to your problem, it will get fixed.
7. Emailing me several times about the same issue in the same day is not only unnecessary, it’s highly annoying. Emails will stay until I delete them, I won’t delete them until I’m done with them. I will typically respond as soon as I have a useful update. If it is an urgent issue, let me know (see number 5).
8. Yes, I prefer email over telephone calls. It has nothing to do with being friendly, it’s about efficiency. It is much faster and easier for me to list out a set of questions that I need you to answer than it is for me to call and ask you them one by one. You can find the answers at your leisure and while I’m waiting I can work on other problems.
9. Yes, I seem blunt and rude. It’s not that I mean to, I just don’t have the time to sugar coat things for you. I assume we are both adults and can handle the reality of a problem. If you did something wrong, I will tell you. I don’t care that it was a mistake, because it really makes no difference to me. Don’t take it personal, I just don’t want it to happen again.
10. And finally, yes, I can read your email, I can see what web pages you look at while you are at work, yes, I can access every file on your work computer, and I can tell if you are chatting with people on an instant messenger or chat room (and can also read what you are typing). But no, I don’t do it. It’s unethical, I’m busy, and in all reality you aren’t all that interesting. So unless I am instructed to specifically monitor or investigate your actions, I don’t. There really are much more interesting things on the internet than you.

Microsoft were due to release SCVMM 2008 yesterday (8th October) but according to a forum post by Carmen Asher (a Program Manager at Microsoft) the release has been delayed until October 30th.

Ohh well, I guess that pushes our upgrade to SCVMM 2008 back a month – Darn.