Remove Exchange 2007 Server

As most system administrators of a Windows Server domain containing a Exchange 2007 Server, the bane of their existence probably lies in the fact that you cannot manually remove Exchange Server 2007. Although you could potentially try to remove a Exchange 2007 Server through the Add/Remove programs option, you're bound to leave trash and potentially lose data. The procedures are more complicated.

The first step to take to remove the first Exchange 2007 Server should start on the remove of the Mailbox's server role. You'll want to do this so that you can gain access to the public folder databases in order to save the data in case you want to swap to another Exchange platform and still use it. In case this data has no value it may simply be deleted from the start which should save you time.

You should first verify the contents of the public folder store, for which you must access the Exchange Management Shell. From here the idea is to request the status on the public folders and then proceed to eliminate any replicas since it's useless to have the data more than once. To execute this you will have one of two options, the first being using the MoveAllReplicas script, the second would be resorting to the Exchange System Manager present on the Exchange 2003.

Once the replicas are gone you can then focus on the main public folder. Retrieve if you require it and then you must delete it as well through roughly the same procedures as before. Rather than a script you'll run the command to remove the public folder or in alternative you can use the Exchange System Manager once more.

The next step to take will be to revoke Exchange 2007's administrative group. You'll have to be sure to disable any excess servers on the domain until you intend to remove last Exchange 2007 Server. Once only the last server is up however the procedure to remove the administrative group is pretty straight forward and should be done through ADSIedit, although there may be no reason to do this if you intend to reinstall Exchange 2007 Server.

Finally, you should remove the default web site that is created with Exchange 2007's installation, since a few server services are installed that won't be required anymore. These are the essential steps to take on how to remove Exchange 2007 Server, but this only deals with a situation where everything hopefully goes well. If the remove failed Exchange 2007 Server should be removed by specific means that should be consulted on the platform's documentation.