[John Farthing]

I have an on going problem, see my previous thread, and after running DCDiag,
it reports that my Schema Master FSMO role is held by a server that is no longer connected to my network. I cannot however force it to another server by using the Schema Master snap in.

Will a Sieze of the Roles to another DC solve the problem, even though this server no longer exists ??

[wkasdo]

Yes, that will solve the problem. However, you should

1. make sure that the original server never comes back on the network
2. Do a metadata cleanup of the original server.

[John Farthing]

Sorted, Thanks for the reply

netdom query FSMO has proved it !

However it took a few attempts as the seize kept failing with LDAP errors. I think this is down to another problem I have regarding DNS running simitaniously on two other AD servers. They want DR and I think this is where all the problems stem from.

[guyt]

If I remember it right, this is normal. During the sieze process, the ntdsutil attempts to contact the original FSMO holder to try a graceful transfer and if it fails (with those LDAP errors - not being able to bind to original FSMO holder) it brute forces the process.

[kDSRAZOR]

That sounds right Guy, it tries to do it nicely and then fails.

Also, as the first chap mentioned, doing a metadata cleanup after siezing a role is more than a good idea.

Here are links to help you with that part (It may look like a long process, but its cake):
http://www.petri.co.il/delete_failed_dcs_from_ad.htm

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...86a7114fd.mspx