Removing the Entry for a Connection Server Instance Using the ‑S Option

You can use the vdmadmin command with the -S option to remove the entry for a Connection Server instance from the VMware Horizon configuration.

Syntax

vdmadmin -S [-b authentication_arguments] -r -s server

Usage Notes

To ensure high availability, VMware Horizon allows you to configure one or more replica Connection Server instances in a Connection Server group. If you disable a Connection Server instance in a group, the entry for the server persists within the VMware Horizon configuration.

To make the removal permanent, perform these tasks:

Uninstall the Connection Server instance from the Windows Server computer by running the Connection Server installer.
Remove the ADAM Instance VMwareVDMDS program from the Windows Server computer by running the Add or Remove Programs tool.
If the Connection Server belongs to a CPA federation, remove the ADAM Instance VMwareVDMDSG program from the Windows Server computer by running the Add or Remove Programs tool.
On another Connection Server instance, use the vdmadmin command with the -S option to remove the entry for the uninstalled Connection Server instance from the configuration.
If needed, reassign the Active Directory schema master role on the cluster. The schema master role is required for future Connection Server upgrades and installations.
1. First, identify the node with the schema master role on the cluster. For instructions, see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/identity/find-servers-holding-fsmo-role#determine-the-schema-fsmo-holder-in-a-forest.
  - If the Connection Server instance that you removed did not have the schema master role, skip the remaining steps of this procedure. You do not need to reassign the role and the removal procedure is now complete.
  - If the Connection Server instance that you removed had the schema master role, proceed to the next steps of this procedure.
2. If the removed Connection Server instance had the schema master role, reassign the role to another node in the cluster.
  - To make the current node the schema master node on the cluster for a local LDAP instance, execute the following command.
```
vdmadmin -X -seizeSchemaMaster
```
  - To make the current node the schema master node on the cluster for a global LDAP instance in a Cloud Pod Architecture federation, enter the following command.
```
vdmadmin -X -seizeSchemaMaster -global
```
  For more information about the vdmadmin -X command, see Detecting and Resolving LDAP Entry and Schema Collisions Using the -X Option.

If you want to reinstall VMware Horizon on the removed systems without replicating the VMware Horizon configuration of the original group, restart all the Connection Server hosts in the original group before performing the reinstallation. This prevents the reinstalled Connection Server instances from receiving configuration updates from their original group.

Note: If you remove the Connection Server instance with the vdmadmin -S command without reassigning the schema master role and performing a clean uninstallation of LDAP instances on the server as described earlier, then you might accidentally remove the schema master node, which blocks future upgrades and installations of Connection Servers.

For information on recovering the Horizon Global AD LDS database from a backup, see VMware Knowledge Base (KB) article 70906.

Options

The -soption specifies the NetBIOS name of the Connection Server instance to be removed.

Examples

Remove the entry for the Connection Server instance connsvr3.

vdmadmin -S -r -s connsvr3