Knowledge Base

How to remove the first Exchange 2000 Server computer from the site

Article ID: 307917

Article Last Modified on 10/28/2006

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q307917

For a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 version of this article, see 822931.

SUMMARY

This article describes the steps to remove the first Exchange 2000 Server computer from an administrative group.

The first Exchange 2000 Server computer installed in an administrative group holds certain important roles. For example, the first server hosts the Offline Address Book folder, the Schedule+ Free Busy folder, the Events Root folder, and other folders. Therefore, you must use caution when you remove this server from the administrative group to which it belongs.

MORE INFORMATION

To remove the first Exchange 2000 Server computer from the site:

Rehome all public folders, which includes system folders, to another Exchange 2000 Server computer in the site. The remainder of this article refers to this other server as the "destination server". The server that is being removed is referred to as the "source server".
1. Start Exchange System Manager (ESM), expand Administrative Groups, expand the name of your administrative group, expand Folders, and then expand Public Folders.
2. Right-click a top-level public folder, and then click Properties.
3. Click the Replication tab, and then click Add.
4. In the Select a Public Store box, select the name of the server where you want a replica of this public folder (the destination server), and then click OK.
5. Click Apply, and then click OK.
6. If this public folder has any subfolders and you want these subfolders to have a replica on the destination server, right-click the top-level public folder, click All Tasks, and then click Propagate Settings.
7. In the Propagate Folder Settings box, click to select the Replicas check box, and then click OK. When you complete this step, all subfolders of that top-level folder have a replica on the destination server.
  
  Note For performance reasons, you may not always want to have replicas of all subfolders of a top-level folder on another server. You must consider this scenario before you do this procedure. For more information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
  
  273479 Description of the public folder referral functionality in Exchange 2000 Server and in Exchange Server 2003
  
  169198 Tips for managing public folders
8. Repeat steps a through g for all top-level folders and subfolders that you want to rehome.
9. After replicas have been made to the destination server, wait for replication to complete, and then make sure that the replica folders are synchronized with the source folders. To do so, view the properties of the specific public folder, click the Replication tab, and then click Details. The Replication Status column indicates In Sync.
10. After you confirm that the replicas are synchronized, repeat steps a through g. However, in step c, in the Replicate content to these public stores section, click the name of the public folder store on the source server, click Remove, click Apply, and then click OK.
Rehome the Offline Address Book folder:
1. Start Exchange System Manager, expand Administrative Groups, expand the name of your administrative group, expand Folders, and then click Public Folders.
2. Right-click Public Folders, and then click View System Folders.
  
  Note If you do not see a View System Folders option, then you are already viewing system folders.
3. Expand the Offline Address Book folder.
4. Right-click the /o=Organization Name/cn=addrlists/cn=oabs/cn=Default Offline Address List folder, and then click Properties.
  
  Note If you receive a message that the mail proxy for this folder not being found, click OK.
5. Add a replica of this folder to the destination server, as explained in step 1.
6. Expand the /o=Organization Name/cn=addrlists/cn=oabs/cn=Default Offline Address List folder, and then click the OAB Version 2 folder. Right-click this folder, and then click Properties.
7. Add a replica of this folder to the destination server, as explained in step 1.
8. After replicas have been made to the destination server, wait for replication to complete, and then make sure that the replica folders are synchronized with the source folders. To do so, view the properties of the specific public folder, click the Replication tab, and then click Details. The Replication Status column indicates In Sync.
9. After you confirm that the replicas are synchronized, remove the replica of this folder from the source server, as explained in step 1.
Change the server that is responsible for generating the Offline Address List:
1. Start Exchange System Manager, expand Recipients, and then click the Offline Address Lists container.
2. In the right pane, right-click Default Offline Address List, and then click Properties.
3. In the Default Offline Address List Properties dialog box, the server that is going to be removed from the site will be in the Offline address list server box.
4. Click Browse.
5. Type the name of the server that the replica of the Offline Address Book was added to in step 2. Click OK.
  
  The new server is now listed as the Offline address list server.
6. Click OK.
  
  Note You may have to quit and restart the Exchange System Manager before the change is displayed.
Rehome the Schedule+ Free Busy folder:
1. Start Exchange System Manager, expand Administrative Groups, and then expand the name of your administrative group. Expand Folders, and then click Public Folders.
2. Right-click Public Folders, and then click View System Folders.
  
  Note If you do not see a View System Folders option, then you are already viewing system folders.
3. Expand the Schedule+ Free Busy folder.
4. Right-click the EX:/o=Organization Name/ou=Administrative Group Name folder, and then click Properties.
  
  Note If you receive a message about the mail proxy for this folder not being found, click OK.
5. Add a replica of this folder to the destination server, as explained in step 1.
6. After replicas have been made to the destination server, wait for replication to complete, and then make sure that the replica folders are synchronized with the source folders. To do so, view the properties of the specific public folder, click the Replication tab, and then click Details. The Replication Status column indicates In Sync.
7. After you confirm that the replicas are synchronized, remove the replica of this folder from the source server, as explained in step 1.
Rehome the Organization Forms folder. If the server that is being decommissioned has the Organization Forms folder homed and has the only replica, replicate the Organization Forms folder to another server in the site. If you do not replicate the Organization Forms folder, clients stop responding when they open system-generated messages such as non-delivery reports (NDRs) and read receipts. To rehome the Organization Forms folder, follow these steps:
1. Start Exchange System Manager.
2. Expand Administrative Groups, and then expand the name of your administrative group.
3. Expand Folders, right-click Public Folders, and then click View System Folders.
  
  Note If you do not see the View System Folders option, you are already viewing system folders.
4. Expand the EFORMS REGISTRY folder. If there is no Organization Forms library folder, ignore steps 5e through 5h.
5. Right-click the Organizational Forms folder, and then click Properties.
  
  Note If you receive a message that states that the mail proxy for this folder is not found, click OK.
6. Add a replica of this folder to the destination server. To do this, see step 1.
7. After replicas have been made to the destination server, wait for replication to finish. Then, make sure that the replica folders are synchronized with the source folders. To do this, view the properties of the specific public folder, click the Replication tab, and then click Details. The Replication Status column indicates In Sync.
8. After you confirm that the replicas are synchronized, remove the replica of this folder from the source server. To do this, see step 1.
Rehome the Recipient Update Service (RUS):
1. In Exchange System Manager, expand the Recipients container, and then click Recipient Update Services.
2. On the right pane, you see the available Recipient Update Services. Click the Exchange Server column to sort the available Recipient Update Services by the Exchange Server computer that hosts them.
3. For every Recipient Update Service that is hosted on the Exchange 2000 Server computer that you plan to remove, open the properties of the Recipient Update Service. Click Browse next to the name of the Exchange 2000 Server computer, and then select another Exchange 2000 Server computer as the new server to host the Recipient Update Service.
If this server is the routing group master, you must designate another server to be the routing group master.

To designate another server to be the routing group master, under Routing Groups, expand the Members folder, right-click the server that you want to designate as the new routing group master, and click Set As Master. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

239556 How to change the role of a server within a routing group
If this Exchange 2000 Server computer has the Site Replication Service (SRS) installed and running on it, you must create a new SRS in Exchange System Manager:
1. Start Exchange System Manager on the Exchange 2000 Server computer on which you want to create the SRS, and then expand Tools.
2. Right-click Site Replication Service, click New, and then click Site Replication Service. When you receive the Are you sure you want to install a new Site Replication Service on this server (ServerName) prompt, click Yes.
3. When you receive the In order to create a Site Replication Service on the local machine, enter the password for the Exchange service account (Domain\service account) prompt, type the password for the Exchange service account. This creates the SRS. It also creates an associated Configuration Connection Agreement. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
  
  255285 How to create an additional Site Replication Service for a mixed site
If this Exchange 2000 Server computer has any connectors hosted on it, these connectors must be rehomed to another server before you remove this Exchange 2000 Server computer from the site. If this server is responsible for distribution group expansion, make sure that a new server is given the responsibility.
Insert the Exchange 2000 Server CD-ROM in the Exchange 2000 Server computer, and then click Remove for each component that has been installed.

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

235396 How to determine the first Exchange Server computer in the site

152959 How to remove the first Exchange server in a site

284148 How to remove the last Exchange Server 5.5 computer from an Exchange 2000 administrative group

282061 How to rebuild a Site Replication Service without a backup

For more information about how to rehome public folders in Exchange 2000, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

288150 How to rehome public folders in Exchange 2000

Additional query words: remove first oab

Keywords: kbinfo KB307917

Microsoft KB Archive/307917

How to remove the first Exchange 2000 Server computer from the site

SUMMARY

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