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(235416) - When you remove a domain from the forest, the Dcpromo.exe tool is used to remove the domain. If this process does not work, then the Ntdsutil.exe tool is used to remove the domain metadata from the forest. Also, when you use the Ntdsutil.exe tool...

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Microsoft Knowledge Base Article

This article contents is Microsoft Copyrighted material.
©2005-©2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use | Trademarks

Article ID: 235416 - Last Review: February 27, 2007 - Revision: 3.5

Removing non-existent domain with Ntdsutil.exe generates "DsRemoveDsDomainW Error..." error message

System TipThis article applies to a different version of Windows than the one you are using. Content in this article may not be relevant to you. Visit the Windows Vista Solution Center
This article was previously published under Q235416

SYMPTOMS

When you remove a domain from the forest, the Dcpromo.exe tool is used to remove the domain. If this process does not work, then the Ntdsutil.exe tool is used to remove the domain metadata from the forest. Also, when you use the Ntdsutil.exe tool to remove a domain, you may receive the following error message:
DsRemoveDsDomainW error 0x20ab.

CAUSE

This problem can occur if, during the process of removing the domain, the trust relationship is broken before an administrator has a chance to properly remove the domain using the Ntdsutil.exe tool. This can occur if the trusted domain is removed before the trust relationship is deleted. If the trust relationship is "broken," the error message listed earlier in this article is generated.

RESOLUTION

To work around the problem, remove the following references in the Active Directory Database, where Domain Name is the name of the domain that you removed:
  • DC=Domain Name,DC=com,CN=Users > CN=Domain Name$
  • DC=Domain Name,DC=com,CN=System > CN=Domain Name.root.com (trustedDomain)
  • CN=Configuration,Domain Name,DC=com,CN=Partitions > CN=Domain Name
Note that these entries can be removed by using Ldp.exe or Adsiedit. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
887424  (http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=887424/ ) "DsRemoveDsDomainW error 0x2015" error message when you use Ntdsutil to try to remove metadata for a domain controller that was removed from your network in Windows Server 2003

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

APPLIES TO
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
Keywords: 
kberrmsg kbprb KB235416
       

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