How to demote an Active Directory Domain Controller

Learn how to demote an Active Directory Domain Controller, both gracefully and forced. In this example, I show you how to gracefully demote a domain controller from an active directory domain, and then show you how to force remove an offline domain controller from the domain.
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Hi, I’m Danny, a London based IT consultant and sporadic blogger. You can view all my blog posts at: www.dannymoran...

[@yan_88tv70]

this is gold.. thanks man!

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@kT2015N]

Thanks a lot... followed your video and demoted a RODC today. worked well

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@HostDone]

Thank you for this, helped a lot amazing video , plz add more and more :)

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@jamesmcjamesington631]

The first video showing the OU and Site & Services cleanup. 👍

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching! Hope it helped!

[@gunjannagpal9255]

Very nicely explained. Thank you.

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@Sertsch]

Outstanding content. Thank you very much!

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@jassingh9769]

Excellent!!!! THANKS A TON

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@kmantec]

Thank you

[@danny_moran]

Thanks for watching!

[@fanisp3112]

Excellent video!
One question , If i have shuted down the servers so i can't devote them, what should i do ??

[@danny_moran]

You will have to clean-up your Active Directory and remove the domain controller objects from there.
I don't have a guide for doing this, unfortunately.
Thanks for watching!

[@CloudzNJ]

I have a question. How does someone go about downsizing lets say 147 DC controllers to lets say 18 DC? like I am trying to grasp the process. Like why would we need to do this? Thank you !

[@danny_moran]

If you're looking at removing over 100 domain controllers, I would recommend speaking with a local IT services provider and getting their advice if you are unsure.
This is something that needs to be thoroughly mapped out and planned, as it will cause a lot of issues if it's not done correctly.
Without knowing any of the details, I can't really provide any information, unfortunately.
Thanks for watching!

[@anonimas12]

Role change is in progress or this computer needs to be restarted
How do I fix this?

[@danny_moran]

This isn't an error I've seen before. Have you tried restarting?
Thanks for watching!

[@anonimas12]

@@danny_moran Turns out it was due to updates that were stuck. Cleaned that up and it worked.

[@danny_moran]

Glad you've got it working!

[@hufftechsolutions7903]

I keep getting "This active directory domain controller appears to be the last DNS server for the following active directory-integrated zones" and won't demote...

[@danny_moran]

Do you have other domain controllers and dns servers in the domain?

[@hufftechsolutions7903]

@@danny_moran Yes, I was removing a 2012 and replacing with a 2022...I ended up using powershell to demote it. The GUI never gave me the option to remove DNS delegation, and when I ran the PS script it kept failing on that, so I removed that piece of the script and it successfully demoted it.

[@danny_moran]

Glad you got it demoted in the end.
Thanks for watching!

[@SkimFelBon]

Hey @@hufftechsolutions7903, I'm trying to demote DC 2012 R2 faced similar problem, could you please point out how to demote DC using powershell?