The delete functionality in the System Policies folder removes the Exchange 2003 object from the configuration naming context of Active Directory

In Exchange System Manager, when you expand the System Policies folder, you click a system policy, you right-click a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 computer that is under the control of the policy, and you then click Delete, you receive the following message:If you click Yes, the Exchange 2003 computer disappears from Exchange System Manager. When you expand the Servers folder, the Exchange 2003 computer is no longer listed.

This behavior also occurs when you click a server policy, you click a server that is under the control of the policy, and you then press the DELETE key or click the delete button that has red X icon on the toolbar.

This behavior occurs because the delete functionality in the System Policies folder removes the Exchange 2003 computer from the configuration naming context of the Active Directory directory service. Although you expect the delete functionality in the System Policies folder to only remove the computer from the system policy that is associated with that computer, if you click Delete, press the DELETE key, or click the delete button that has a red X icon on the toolbar, this action deletes the Exchange 2003 computer object from the Active Directory directory service.

Note The Delete option in the Systems Policies folder is only available if your Exchange 2003 organization is in Exchange 2003 native mode. In native mode, some additional menu options appear in the system policies context view. This includes the Delete command that appears when you right-click the computer name and the Delete button on the toolbar.

If you accidentally deleted your Exchange 2003 computer from the configuration naming context of Active Directory and you want to recover it, you must follow Exchange disaster recovery procedures to restore Active Directory to the state Active Directory was in before the deletion. You may also have to reinstall Exchange 2003 and restore the databases.

For more information about Active Directory disaster recovery, review the "Active Directory Disaster Recovery" white paper. To obtain this white paper, visit the following Microsoft Web site: For more information about Exchange disaster recovery, review the "Exchange Server 2003 Disaster Recovery Operations Guide" white paper. To obtain this white paper, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

To remove a server from a system policy, you must use the Remove from policy option. To do this, expand the System Policies container in Exchange System Manager, click the system policy, right-click the server that is under the control of the policy, click Remove from policy, and then click Yes in response to the prompt. This action produces the expected behavior and removes the server from the control of the system policy.