Demoting the last Windows Server 2012 R2 Domain Controller with PowerShell.

As with promoting a server to domain controller, demoting the a domain controller is also a straight forward process with PowerShell. The following PowerShell cmdlets are available from the ADDSDeployment module:

Addscmdlets

Uninstall Active Directory:

The demote process got a little tricky because this was the last DC in the domain and had an Operations Master role. I used two key parameters to bypass this situation:

-DemoteOperationMasterRole []
Indicates that (forced) demotion should continue even if an operations master role is discovered on domain controller from which AD DS is
being removed.

Required? false
-ForceRemoval []
Forces the removal of a domain controller. Use this parameter to force the uninstall of AD DS if you need to remove the domain controller
and do not have connectivity to other domain controllers within the domain topology.

Required? true

Uninstall-AddsDomainController04

Uninstall-AddsDomainController05

I uninstalled the Active Directory domain services role after the demotion :

Remove-Ad-Domain-Services

After another restart, the server is clean and totally free of Active Directory.

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This entry was posted in Active Directory, Active Directory Domain Services, AD Forest, DCPromo, Domain Controller, PowerShell, PowerShell 3.0, Powershell 4.0, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2 and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Demoting the last Windows Server 2012 R2 Domain Controller with PowerShell.

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