Removing Sametime servers from a EMS cluster using the hard way

How many of you has been in the dilemma of trying to remove a Sametime server from Sametime Enterprise Meeting Server (EMS) cluster but it just doesn't work.

I came to this customer trying to make one of the Servers to work in the cluster, but since the EMS never saw the Sametime server as "Running" and it also never allowed us to remove it using the Sametime EMS administration interface (web browser only).

What I had to do in order to remove and add it back to the cluster was:

1. Stop STServer, STAdmin and STCenter
2. Stop WebSphere Application Server (or just server1)
   
3. Stop all Sametime servers running in the EMS cluster
4. Backup the DB2 database (Sametime)
5. Open each table in the STConfig schema where the Sametime server to be removed is listed. Remember, it is just the STConfig schema in the Sametime DB2 database.
   
6. Delete the rows containing the Sametime server and delete the row(s). Remember to commit the transaction. Some tables will have multiple rows with the server name since each row represents a different Sametime service available in the server.
7. Start WebSphere Application Server (or server1)
   
8. Start STServer, STAdmin and STCenter
9. Start your Sametime Servers (except for the one that was removed)
10. Reinstall Sametime in the server (in the removed server)
11. Using the Standard Admin Interface for EMS, add the server back to the cluster
    

There is another procedure to add the server back to the cluster without reinstalling Sametime, but I guess I will leave that one for a future post.

Please remember this procedure is not document in the IBM site and probably is not even supported by IBM. Now, it worked and it has been working for some time now with no issues.

Now Sametime 8.0.1 is out, I recommend to remove the server from EMS (using the documented procedure) before trying to upgrade, after the server is up and running 8.0.1 you can add it back to EMS and continue with the next one. Also, there is no documentation explaining if you have to (or how to) upgrade the STAdmin, STServer and STCenter components in WebSphere, but so far it looks you don't have too. I will post it if I find the procedure.