Demoting a domain controller and uninstalling AD DS from Server 2012 R2

Today we will be looking at demoting our domain controller and uninstalling AD DS (active directory domain services).

 Firstly we will navigate to the server manager and click on MANAGE.

Once the drop down appears you will want to click on Remove Roles and Features.

Once you click REMOVE ROLES AND FEATURES a window will pop up informing you about this wizard, click next, once you have been redirected to the select server window, select your server from the list and click next.

You will then be presented with the REMOVE SERVER ROLES window, here you will be able to remove and roles that are installed on your server, be careful when selecting roles to remove.

At this window you will want to find Active Directory Domain Services from the list and uncheck it,

You will then be promoted with the features that you wish to remove and asked again to confirm that you would like to remove these features.Click REMOVE FEATURES,

Right after you have selected the REMOVE FEATURES box a window will display VALIDATION RESULTS.  when this window pops up you will want to click on DEMOTE THIS DOMAIN CONTROLLER.

This is a very important step and sometimes missed by others.

Now that you have clicks this option you will be prompted to select the removal option, in this case we want to select FORCE THE REMOVAL OF THIS DOMAIN CONTROLLER.

It is important that you read carefully, the Metasata cleanup will have to be done manually after the domain controller removal, This will be in my next post.

After clicking next select proceed with removal and click NEXT.

Here you will enter you new admin password, The reason for this is when you delete the domain controller you will be redirected back to an administrator account on the local computer.

Fill in your password and select NEXT to be able to complete the process.

Here you will click Demote and allow your SERVER to restart, the Demotion process is not complete.