Microsoft Sharepoint Products and Technologies Resource Kit eBook

Chapter 2: Installing Windows SharePoint Services 51
Removing Windows SharePoint Services from a Virtual Server by Using
the Command Line
You can use the unextendvs operation with the Stsadm.exe command-line utility to
remove Windows SharePoint Services from a virtual server. The unextendvs operation
takes the -url parameter and the optional -deletecontent parameter. When you
use unextendvs without the -deletecontent parameter, it leaves the content databases
in place so that you can reconnect to the content for a virtual server. When
you include the -deletecontent parameter, the content databases are removed and
the virtual server is removed from the configuration database.
For example, to remove Windows SharePoint Services from a virtual server but
preserve the content databases, use the unextendvs operation with syntax as shown
in the following example:
stsadm -o unextendvs -url http://servername
To remove Windows SharePoint Services from a virtual server and remove the
content databases permanently, use the unextendvs operation with syntax as shown
in the following example:
stsadm -o unextendvs -url http://servername -deletecontent
When you use the unextendvs operation with the -deletecontent parameter,
you cannot reconnect to the site content later.
Uninstalling Windows SharePoint Services from the Server Computer
If you want to remove Windows SharePoint Services from a server computer
entirely, you can uninstall by using the Add Or Remove Programs control panel.
Uninstalling Windows SharePoint Services does not remove any chained products
that were installed, such as WMSDE. You must uninstall these programs separately.
You must be an administrator on the server computer to uninstall Windows
SharePoint Services.
When you use the Add or Remove Programs control panel to remove Windows
SharePoint Services from a server, it calls a command-line operation, stsadm
-o uninstall, to perform the task. The uninstall operation does not remove any
chained products that were installed. The uninstall operation takes the optional
-deletecontent parameter. When uninstall is used without the -deletecontent parameter,
it leaves the content and configuration databases in place so that Windows
SharePoint Services can be reinstalled, and so that you can reconnect to the databases
and continue hosting sites. When the -deletecontent parameter is used, the
content and configuration databases are removed, and you cannot recover the site
content.