“Object ‘‘ couldn’t be found on ‘‘” error when trying to uninstall Exchange Server

Symptoms

When you try to uninstall Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 or 2016 on servers that have the January 2023 Security Update for Exchange Server installed, the Setup program abruptly stops responding and returns the following error message:

The operation couldn’t be performed because object ‘<ServerName>’ couldn’t be found on ‘<DomainControllerName>’.

Note In this message, <ServerName> and <DomainControllerName> are placeholders for the actual entity names.

Additionally, you find that the Exchange Server object that you are trying to uninstall is removed from the relevant Active Directory configuration container.

Resolution

To fix this issue, install the following security updates, as appropriate:

• Description of the security update for Microsoft Exchange Server 2019: June 13, 2023 (KB5026261)
• Description of the security update for Microsoft Exchange Server 2016: June 13, 2023 (KB5025903)

Workaround

If you can’t install the June security updates, use the following workaround.

Before you uninstall

To work around this error before you start the uninstallation process, update the listed registry key for the following program and cumulative update (CU) versions on Exchange servers that have the January 2023 security update installed. Either manually update the registry or run the associated PowerShell command.

For Exchange Server 2019 CU12

Subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\v15\Setup 

Key: “MsiBuildMinor”=dword:00000007

PowerShell command:

Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\v15\Setup -Name “MsiBuildMinor” -Value 7 -Type DWord

For Exchange Server 2019 CU11

Subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\v15\Setup 

Key: “MsiBuildMinor”=dword:00000005

PowerShell command:

Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\v15\Setup -Name “MsiBuildMinor” -Value 5 -Type DWord

For Exchange Server 2016 CU23

Subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\v15\Setup

Key: “MsiBuildMinor”=dword:00000006

PowerShell command:

Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\v15\Setup -Name “MsiBuildMinor” -Value 6 -Type DWord

Note If your Exchange Server installation is already in a failed state, and you have received the error message that’s mentioned in the “Symptoms” section, the Exchange Server object is already removed from the config container.

After you uninstall

To work around this error after you have already performed the uninstallation, run Get-ExchangeServer and Get-TransportService from a working Exchange server to verify that the uninstalled server was removed. If it is removed, you can proceed to reformat the uninstalled server.

Source MS