The last
days we have been working hard to get some farms built in a record time, and
the main issue and time consuming was the fact that we´re reusing servers. Now
I can say it´s the worst idea ever.
When you
remove a server form a SharePoint farm (you might check the procedure here) many configurations remain on the
server, from the hive folder until the web.config of the Internet Information Services (IIS). If you really
need to reuse a server but you don´t have the choice to reinstall the operating
system take into account at least some steps to clean up the environment;
- Delete the hive folder: program Files\Common files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14
- Remove the Application and IIS feature of the server. And here comes the point; you should first uninstall any SharePoint product, stating always with any language pack.So you should:
- Remove SharePoint language pack
- Remove SharePoint server
- Remove application and IIS feature
- Restart the server
- Install the application and IIS feature
- Install SharePoint prerequisites
- Install SharePoint server
- Install language pack (foundation and server) ... for sure I´m missing some restarts of the server ...
After my
experience I´m willing to reinstall the operating system and apply any
necessary update prior to try to reuse a
server that was before a SharePoint server.
