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Delete an Object from AD

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by surrealx

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My problem is that I cannot delete an object from the active directory. It is a distribution list that was replicated from Exchange 5.5 to the AD using the ADC. Lots of other lists have replicated fine, however this object appears with the ?windows? icon, where all the others appear with the proper Group icon for Active directory. Also the type for this item is ?Unknown?. Whenever I try to delete it, I get an error ?Windows cannot delete object [name] because: The specified directory service attribute or value does not exist.? According to TechNet, in order to view the attributes of an object that shows up as unknown, I would need to take ownership of the object. However when I try and take ownership, using the administrator account (and the exchange 5.5 service account) for our domain, I get an access denied error. I also tried to delete it through ADSIEdit, but get the same error as above. I have recreated this group and it is replicating between exchange 5.5 and AD fine, andI just want to remove this group.
Does anybody know of a way you can force objects out of the active directory?

5 replies

by junething

Taking a crack at this. When u replicated things from Exchange 5.5 to AD, what u are doing is "changing" the schema of AD (since Exchange 2000 gets intergrated with AD). And u get "unknow" because there is no class assoicated with the object. Example would be class(user), objects(user1, user2, user3, etc). If u don't have the class before the replication, AD considers them to be forgein or unkown.

2 ways to do this:
1. Log on to Entripise Admin and make that part of Schema Admin group. Enterprise Admin to get full access to all domains/DC. Schema Admin, to change the schema of AD. Then u should have full control of all objects in your domain/child domians. Then u can delete the "unknow" object.

2. If this is initial stage of your migration, then redo, with all the necessary changes to AD using Schema Admin. Make sure, the schema has replicated to all DCs before u transfer( allow for double the normal time of replication). Then migirate the Exchange 5.5.

Note,AD is new part of Windows Domain, it is very useful, but there are certian steps u need to before changing your AD schema, and only authorized Schema Admin should be given permisson to change the AD.

Would be nice to have an MCSE admin to do this stuff, cause Microsoft grilled this topics in the exam...

Good luck.

by shanghai sam

Well I am too far down the migration track to redo it. Also the problem is only with one object in the AD. Many other objects exactly like it have replicated without a problem. I have tried to delete the object as the Schema Admin, but I receivedthe same error.

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