Sean Wallbridge
Notes:
- Don’t ask why the SharePoint server is a DC. It is not recommended that a SharePoint Server is a DC, but in some situations we don’t have a choice…
- Don’t ask why we had to demote and then re-promote the SharePoint server as a DC. You should try to avoid a demotion/promotion of a Windows Server running IIS…
But, if you are in the situation where you have a Windows Server 2008 system that is a DC (Domain Controller), and you need to demote and then re-promote it, here are the steps to ensure that it works when you are done (because IIS will get its nose all out of joint – in Windows Server 2003 there used to be scripts to help with this situation, no such scripts appear to exist for Windows Server 2008, that at least I have stumbled across…). Note that the order isn’t so important though, so long as SharePoint is reintroduced after IIS has been reinstalled.
- Take a full backup (or snapshot) of your system for safe keeping (duh!)
- Take a Metabase backup in IIS (just in case)
- Using PSConfig (SharePoint Products and Technologies Wizard), *disconnect* from the SharePoint Farm
- Perform the DCPromo to demote the system back to a member server (SharePoint won’t be happy, but we’ll work to make it happy again)
- Reboot. Do whatever task you had to do, then promote back to a DC (or not, perhaps your goal is to keep the server as a member server
- At this point, IIS is an unhappy bunny – you could spend hours trying to troubleshoot, or you could simply uninstall IIS, reboot and reinstall
- Using PSConfig (SharePoint Products and Technologies Wizard), *reconnect* to the SharePoint Farm
- Perform an IISRESET
- Correct any DCOM Permissions (IISWAMREG anyone?) that have likely returned
That’s it.