One of our Windows 2003 servers has reached it's end of life and I am trying to demote it so that it can be removed from the network. The PDC is still online, of course. I am getting this error:
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Active Directory Installation Wizard
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The operation failed because:
Active Directory could not transfer the remaining data in directory partition
CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,DC=xxx,DC=NET to domain controller yyy.xxxx.NET.
"The RPC server is unavailable."
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OK
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The RPC service is running on both servers.
How can I get past the error and completely demote the server?
Best Answer
Verify that the DC to-be-demoted has good DNS being hosted by another DC, rather than itself.
Personally, I'd fire up "Network Monitor" on the DC being demoted and see what it's trying to send across the wire when the error occurs. That's my style.
BTW: There are no "PDC" and "BDC" computers in Active Directory. What you're working with is a "DC". There is a DC that holds a special role called "PDC Emulator", but that doesn't make it a "PDC" in the old Windows NT 4.0 sense.