Removing MOM’s Active Directory management pack helper object

This content is 18 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

A few months back I had a look at Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005. Then, a couple of weeks back, I noticed that one of my servers had the Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Agent installed, as well as the Active Directory management pack helper object. I uninstalled the Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 agent from the Add/Remove programs applet in Control Panel, but when I went to remove the helper object I was greeted with the following error (and the MSI Installer logged event ID 11920 in the application log):

Active Directory Management Pack Helper Object
Service ‘MOM’ (MOM) failed to start. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system services.

Retrying the operation produced the same error, so I was forced to cancel, then confirm the cancellation, before finally receiving another error message (and the MSI Installer logged event ID 11725 in the application log):

Add or Remove Programs
Fatal error during installation.

The answer was found on the microsoft.public.mom newsgroup – I needed to reinstall the MOM agent before the AD management pack helper object could be removed but there was a slight complication because I no longer have a MOM server (I deleted my virtual MOM server after finishing my testing). Manual agent installation is possible, but I needed to supply false details for the management group name and management server in order to let the installation take place with a warning that the agent would keep retrying to contact the server (all other settings were left at their defaults).

Once the agent installation was complete, it was a straightforward operation to remove the Active Directory management pack helper object, before uninstalling the MOM agent (successfully indicated by MSI Installer event ID 11724 in the application log).

It’s a simple enough workaround but represents lousy design on the part of the MOM agent/management pack installers – surely any child helper object installations should be identified before a parent agent will allow itself to be uninstalled?

2 thoughts on “Removing MOM’s Active Directory management pack helper object

  1. I’ve got the exact same thing going on over here. The mom server is already gone and I uninstalled the Agent on my servers and now the Helper Packs cannot be uninstalled… really lousy programming

  2. What if you don’t have the MOM 2005 install files and you are trying to retire Exchange 2003? Can you manually remove the Active Directory Management Pack Helper Object?

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