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PoorMens_Bravo's avatar
PoorMens_Bravo
Brass Contributor
Feb 07, 2024

Unable to uninstall Exchange 2016 even after removing it from DAG

Hi,

I am unable to uninstall Exchange 2016 after removing it from DAG. Initially, I was getting an error message initially while removing the server from DAG

Remove-DatabaseAvailabilityGroupServer -Identity DAGNAME -MailboxServer servername -Confirm:$False


This resulted in error and so, ran the same cmd with configurationonly switch and then it succeeded. But now when i check the setuplogs for the cmd without configurationonly switch i see the execution failed because:

The cluster's name is: DAGname.
[2024-02-07T07:47:32] Groups
[2024-02-07T07:47:32] A localized exception was caught while dumping the cluster! An error occurred while attempting a cluster operation. Error: Cluster API failed: "ClusterOpenEnum(objecttype=CLUSTER_ENUM_GROUP) failed with 0x46. Error: The remote server has been paused or is in the process of being started"
[2024-02-07T07:47:32] The operation wasn't successful because an error was encountered. You may find more details in log file "C:\ExchangeSetupLogs\DagTasks\dagtask_2024-02-07_07-47-31.403_remove-databaseavailabiltygroupserver.log" on "servername".
[2024-02-07T07:47:32] WriteError! Exception = Microsoft.Exchange.Cluster.Shared.ClusterApiException: An error occurred while attempting a cluster operation. Error: Cluster API failed: "ClusterOpenEnum(objecttype=CLUSTER_ENUM_GROUP) failed with 0x46. Error: The remote server has been paused or is in the process of being started" ---> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: The remote server has been paused or is in the process of being started
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---

And with configurationonly switch i see the removal of server from DAg successfully, but, one log i see:

Looking up IP addresses for DAGNAME.
[2024-02-07T08:05:21] Failure while trying to resolve DAGNAME: threw a SocketException: No such host is known

 

 

Anyways, i Proceeded with setup.exe /mode:uninstall and below is what error i get:

 

Performing Microsoft Exchange Server Prerequisite Check

Configuring Prerequisites COMPLETED
Prerequisite Analysis FAILED

This computer is a member of a database availability group (DAG). It must be removed from the DAG before you can uninstall Exchange.
For more information, visit: http://technet.microsoft.com/library(EXCHG.150)/ms.exch.setupreadiness.CannotUninstallClusterNode.aspx
  • tantull0's avatar
    tantull0
    Copper Contributor

    PoorMens_Bravo another possible solution,i have the same error and in my case disabling the cluster service in the server just makes uninstall wizard to go ahead and no check for dag membership

  • Rajith's avatar
    Rajith
    Copper Contributor
    Was the server that was out of the DAG restarted at the end?
  • I see that the Exchange server is not part of DAG, it is just that this server feels that it is still member of the DAG. I checked DAG membership servers and it is not having this server as its memberserver.
    • Thomas_Koorts's avatar
      Thomas_Koorts
      Copper Contributor

      HiPoorMens_Bravo 

       

      I had the exact same issue last week. If you look at the server Event Logs you'll most likely see issues with the Cluster Service. In my case the service was disabled, and wouldn't start after it was enabled. The is apparently a registry entry that you can edit as well, but it didn't exist in my case.

      The only way that I got the server removed was through adsiedit, deleting it from the configuration partition, removing the computer object from ADUC and cleaning up DNS. Shut down and delete the VM.

      Not the most elegant solution, and slightly risky with deleting from adsiedit and all, but it worked, with no ramification to the rest of the Exchange environment.

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