Metadata cleanup is a process which is required to remove a failed DC from the domain which can’t be demoted gracefully.ĭoes metadata cleanup remove all the entries from AD? The answer is NO, it doesn't remove all the records from AD. If the DC has already crashed, then metadata cleanup is the only remaining option. If the server has crashed then there is no possibility of graceful demotion, because graceful demotion can only be used when you can run dcpromo onĪ DC to remove AD. Work then only use force removal.) Using DCPROMO /FORCEREMOVAL requires additional steps of metadata cleanup. (Keep in mind, your first option should be always to try for graceful demotion, if it doesn’t One is normal demotion using DCPROMO, the other is forceful removal using DCPROMO /FORCEREMOVAL. You thought you were done, but you have skippedĪn important step to remove/clean the crashed DC objects & its references from AD to tell others DC's that this DC is no more.

What did you do? You seized the FSMO role on the healthy DC and then transferred all other AD services like DNS/GC/DHCP/etc to it. This article presents methods to demote aĬonsider, a DC which was serving as a PDC crashed. We have all witnessed domain controllers crashing due to hardware failure or a database issue, where it becomes mandatory to remove the DC either using graceful or forceful demotion.

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