I'm having a hard time getting rid of some Certificate Authority components in Server 2025. I have two identical Dell servers running this OS, which host clustered VMs, one of which is a domain controller with the certificate authority roles installed. This setup has been working fine, and none of the other VMs or hosts need these roles. Recently, after an update, I saw a popup in the server manager stating that "post deployment configuration required for certificate services." I don't even recall installing it, but I want to try removing it. Unfortunately, the GUI gives me an error saying, "The request to add or remove features on the specified server failed. An unexpected error has occurred. Error: 0x800f080c." I also ran a PowerShell command to uninstall the relevant features, but it failed with the same error. I've tried various troubleshooting steps, including DISM cleanup, SFC /scannow, and even a full reinstall, but nothing works. It's like the components are still referenced although they can't be removed. Any ideas on how to resolve this?
5 Answers
Sounds like you’re dealing with a mess there! Also, check if there are any pending jobs on the Certificate Authority that might stop you from removing these roles. A reboot can sometimes clear those, so give that a try too. But if you’re still stuck, digging into the component states with DISM or removing the components directly from the mounted OS image might be the way to go.
That error code means the feature name isn't recognized by the component store, so it sounds like the component store is out of sync. You might want to run `dism /online /get-packages | findstr ADCS` to see if those packages appear. If they do, you can uninstall them directly with `dism /online /remove-package /packagename:Package_for_KBxxxxxx`. I’ve had similar issues before, and this approach worked for me. Microsoft can mess things up like this sometimes.
From your description, it looks like the role installation didn't complete properly, which might be why you're seeing that "Post-deployment configuration required" message. You may want to try clicking on "Configure Active Directory Certificate Services on the destination server" and completing that wizard, even if it's just a minimal configuration. Once that's done, you should be able to remove the features normally. It sounds like the role is stuck in an inconsistent state right now.
It seems like Server Manager thinks the role was partially installed due to feature dependencies. I experienced something similar where components like Web Enrollment were stuck in the component store. Try removing the features one at a time instead of the entire ADCS group. Also, running `DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth` can sometimes fix component store issues. If none of that works, you might have to look into whether those components were installed via some dependency from a management tool.
UPDATE: I found that uninstalling a couple of IIS components that got installed during the ADCS update caused bigger issues for me. It seems this may have been about WMI being corrupt. Now I'm facing errors throughout the entire Hyper-V management tools since I rebooted. It’s frustrating that this whole situation was more complicated than just the CA roles.
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