How to Evict a Node from a Windows Server 2003 Failover Cluster

Article
01/23/2017

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will reach end of support on April 11, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP3

This topic explains how to use Cluster Administrator or Cluster.exe to evict a node from a Windows Server 2003 failover cluster. Evicting a node from the cluster makes the node incapable of hosting a clustered mailbox server. For detailed steps about how to evict a node from a Windows Server 2008 failover cluster, see How to Evict a Node from a Windows Server 2008 Failover Cluster.

If for any reason your attempts to evict a node from the failover cluster fail, you can use the last procedure in this topic to forcibly evict the node from the cluster.

Before You Begin

Before you begin, you must move any existing clustered mailbox server to another node, and then uninstall Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 from the node that is being evicted. For more information about uninstalling a clustered mailbox server, see Uninstalling Clustered Mailbox Servers.

To perform the following procedures, the account you use must be delegated membership in the local Administrators group for the node to be removed. For more information about permissions, delegating roles, and the rights that are required to administer Exchange 2007, see Permission Considerations.

Procedure

To use Cluster Administrator to evict a node from a Windows Server 2003 failover cluster

Open the Cluster Administrator tool.
Double-click the cluster name in the tree.
Right-click the node that you want to remove from the cluster, and then click Stop Cluster Service. A dialog box appears while the service is stopped. When the service is stopped, the node icon shows an X.
Right-click the node again, and then click Evict Node.
A dialog box appears that asks if you are sure that you want to evict the node. Make sure that the correct node is specified in the dialog box, and then click Yes to evict the node.

To use Cluster Administrator to evict the last node from a Windows Server 2003 failover cluster

Open the Cluster Administrator tool.
Double-click the cluster name in the tree.
Right-click the node that you want to remove from the cluster, and then click the Evict Node option.

When the operation is complete, Cluster Administrator reports that the cluster is unavailable.

To use Cluster.exe to evict a node from a Windows Server 2003 failover cluster

Open a Command Prompt window on the node you want to evict.
Stop the Cluster service by running the following command:
```
net stop clussvc
```
After the Cluster service has been stopped, evict the node by running the following command:
```
Cluster <ClusterName> node <NodeName> /evict
```
Note

When evicting the last node in the cluster using Cluster.exe, you do not need to stop the Cluster service before running the command in Step 3.

To use Cluster.exe to forcibly evict a node from a Windows Server 2003 failover cluster

Open a Command Prompt window on the node you want to forcibly evict.
Stop the Cluster service by running the following command.
```
net stop clussvc
```
After the Cluster service has been stopped, forcibly evict the node by running the following command.
```
Cluster <ClusterName> node <NodeName> /force
```
Note

When evicting the last node in the cluster using Cluster.exe, you do not need to stop the Cluster service before running the command in Step 3.

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