Disjoining a domain?

[GCS]

So here is what we have and I need some help please.

Small Business (about 10 user machines, 1 W7 server with our data, 1 SBS server for our domain and exchange).

We have switched over to a hosted exchange service and no longer need the SBS Server/Exchange in our office (exchange was the only reason we even had it and it was a nightmare to deal with).

In order to turn off the exchange the server and remove it from the bldg we need to have all users disjoin the domain ... Correct?


How do I go about doing this correctly?

By going back to the "local user" accounts are we going to lose our settings, emails, installed programs, etc etc?

LMK as I cannot afford to make a mistake on this part.

Thanks

Greg

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Not sure if it is possible but this company may be able to help

http://www.forensit.com/index.html

 

[Cal166]

Can't you just leave the domain portion and just remove exchange portion.

It's better to keep the users in a domain and have it as a real network than a workgroup.

 

[seepy83]

You're really right at the border where you've got a low enough count of PCs/users where you don't necessarily need AD, but grow a little bit and it starts to be a necessity.

If you've already invested in Windows Server licensing and have the environment set up, it probably makes sense to keep the domain. You may want to hire a consultant to take a look at active directory, clean it up for you, and show you how to properly manage it from here on out. But doing away with it completely may be a decision that you really regret later.


To answer your question specifically...disjoining a computer from a domain won't make applications disappear, but users will have new profiles when they log in with a local user account. Most of that user profile data can be copied over to a new profile...google should be able to help you with that.

 

[GCS]

Reason for doing away with the Domain as it has made life miserable. It is higher end than our office really needs. Our install has also become corrupted and has issues affecting our office. We have had 2 consultants in here to work on it and try and repair our issues and spent more money on it than necessary or wanted. Both consultants agreed in the end it would be best to redo it entirely.

We feel it would be a waste to spend $1500+ redoing a server we actually don't need.

 

[Cal166]

The only portion you might need to reconfigure is the outlook. Configure it first in the new profile, then copy the outlook data from the domain profile. Try to keep the file names the same.

 

[GCS]

Ok so how does this look?

1 - Backup Outlook (.pst) file.
2 - Copy Domain profile data to Local User account (which each computer already has a local account) - will google for this of course
3 - Disjoin domain
4 - Reconfigure Outlook (with our hosted exchange server info)
5 - Restore Outlook data from backup

Once done on all workstations shutdown SBS server machine

We should then be up and running as usual w/o being in a domain but still have all programs, settings etc.

 

[Cal166]

Ok so how does this look?

1 - Backup Outlook (.pst) file.
2 - Copy Domain profile data to Local User account (which each computer already has a local account) - will google for this of course
3 - Disjoin domain
4 - Reconfigure Outlook (with our hosted exchange server info)
5 - Restore Outlook data from backup

Once done on all workstations shutdown SBS server machine

We should then be up and running as usual w/o being in a domain but still have all programs, settings etc.

Backup/exporting the outlook data is a very safe step.

The way I would do it is.

1. Create the Local User account.
2. Disjoin the domain.
3. Restart and log into the Local User.
4. Configure the Re-configure Outlook.
5. Exit Outlook.
6. Copy the outlook files from the domain profile to the local user's profile (c drive\your user name\appData\local\microsoft\office). Be sure to replace the same file names from domain to local.

Remember the domain user profile will not be deleted once your unjoin the domain. So all the My documents, desktop, etc files are still there.

 

[corkyg]

And, this thread would be better served in the NETWORKING Forum. It is not an OS matter.

 

[seepy83]

This actually is an OS matter. He needs to know how to copy data from one user profile to another when he disjoins a computer from a Domain. There isn't much networking involved here...

 

[Lifted]

This actually is an OS matter. He needs to know how to copy data from one user profile to another when he disjoins a computer from a Domain. There isn't much networking involved here...

Agreed that the topic is 100% Windows OS issue, nothing to do with networking, but the rollyeyes aren't needed.

 

[kevnich2]

What specific issues are you having with your DC computer? I'm on the side of keep it in place. A few more computers added to your network and your going to wish you had one just to keep your computers more manageable. SBS DC should be pretty easy but if it was installed and implemented by a company that doesn't have any experience with the SBS varient, it can get messed up easily.

SBS is all wizard driven and if you set it up the manual way like you do regular AD, things don't get setup all the way. If you do it through the wizards, it works like a charm. SBS was designed to be setup and run by the average joe with little to no IT support.

 

[imagoon]

Yeah this definitely not a networking issue so you are not as likely to get the best help from this forum but... Removing a domain doesn't have much to do with outlook at all really.

Just copying PST files like you are planning is going to result in a bucket of failure. You should just reattach it properly in outlook. When you remove the domain you will need to root around in the old user profiles and move everything out and reconfigure. The domain profiles (IE the current user desktops) is effectively lost. This means most of the configurations for office and user applications will be lost.

AD really isn't hard to fix. You really should use the server as a file server. Saving everything locally is a bigger mess. In my opinion, dropping out of a domain to local users is a step in the wrong direction and ineffective at the same time.