How to Uninstall Essentials Management Server
Applies To: System Center Essentials 2010
You can uninstall the System Center Essentials 2010 management server and components in three ways: uninstall the program from Add or Remove Programs, uninstall the program by using the product CD, or uninstall the program at a command prompt. During the process of uninstalling, you can also choose to remove the Essentials 2010 database, log files, and any update files. To uninstall Essentials by using a command prompt, see How to Use a Command Prompt to Uninstall Essentials; otherwise, use one of the procedures shown below to remove Essentials 2010 and related components from the server.
Important
The process of uninstalling Essentials 2010 also uninstalls the Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) server and Group Policy objects (GPOs) that specify where the managed computers retrieve updates. When the WSUS Group Policy object is removed during the uninstall process, the computers receive updates from the default update server which is Windows Update.
If you do not want the computers in your environment to contact Windows Update after Essentials 2010 is uninstalled, you must create a new Group Policy object to direct computers to retrieve updates from a different server. You can accomplish this by taking the following actions: install a stand-alone WSUS server, and then use the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) to configure the computers to receive updates from the stand-alone WSUS server. Wait two hours for the changes you made to the Group Policy objects to replicate. Uninstall Essentials 2010.To uninstall Essentials 2010 from a server by using Add or Remove Programs
Uninstall the agents from managed computers.
Open Control Panel on the Essentials management server, and then click Add or Remove Programs.
In Add or Remove Programs, remove System Center Essentials 2010.
To uninstall Essentials 2010 from a server by using the product CD
Insert the product CD into the CD drive.
Run SetupSCE.exe from the root of the CD.
When the System Center Essentials 2010 Setup Wizard opens, click Install.
Click Uninstall System Center Essentials.
Important
Uninstall Essentials 2010 Reporting from the management server before you uninstall Essentials 2010. To uninstall Essentials Reporting, you must log on to the Essentials management server with an account that is a member of the Microsoft SQL Server Administrators group. Otherwise, Essentials 2010 Reporting is not uninstalled. For more information, see How to Uninstall Essentials Reporting Server From a Remote Database Server.
The next page of the wizard prompts you to uninstall the agents from managed computers. Uninstall the agent from each managed computer before you continue. Select the check box to indicate you have uninstalled the agents, or that you want to continue without removing the agents, and then click Next.
Select whether to retain or remove System Center Essentials data. If you retain the data, the database(s) will remain attached to their current SQL Server database server, except for VMM databases (which are always removed). Click Next to continue.
Important
The option to retain data is not supported for the VirtualManagerDB database.
Review the uninstall summary. Click Previous to go back and make changes, or click Uninstall to remove Essentials from the server.
A progress page appears while Essentials is uninstalled from the server. The results are displayed when the uninstall process is completed.
To verify that the uninstall process was successful
Check the Essentials installation folder, and ensure that all files and folders have been removed. The default name for this folder is Program Files\System Center Essentials 2010.
Start SQL Server Management Studio and verify that the OperationsManager, OperationsManagerDW, SUSDB, and VirtualManager databases have been removed.
Note
The OperationsManager, OperationsManagerDW, and SUSDB databases are not removed if you decide to retain data.
See Also
Tasks
How to Uninstall Manually Installed Essentials Agents