Decommissioning RMS Servers

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

When you decommission RMS, the behavior of the RMS server is changed so that it can now provide a key that decrypts the rights-protected content that it had previously published. This key allows the content to be saved without RMS protection. This can be useful if you have decided to stop using RMS protection in your organization.

You should run the server in its decommissioned state long enough for users to have the opportunity to save their content without RMS protection and for your network and system administrators to disable any RMS-enabled clients from using the service.

You can enable decommissioning through the Security settings Web page of the administration Web site. After you enable decommissioning, you cannot restore the server to a standard RMS server configuration. If the installation included any trusted publishing domains, they are also decommissioned.

After you enable decommissioning, the administration Web site will contain only the Decommissioned server information page; no further administration is supported.For more information on the steps required to decommission and remove RMS from your organization, see "To Decommission RMS" later in this subject.