How to Uninstall an instance created using the Sitecore Install Framework

Question

I've been playing with the creation of Sitecore 9 instances, however I keep running into issues (which is not related to my question), but as I fix various things related to my local configuration, I would like to remove existing instances that failed to complete successfully using the SIF (Sitecore Install Framework). Is there a command already implemented that will automatically do this or will I need to create something that will do this?

Answer 1

There is not currently such a command. I wish there was.

In general terms to uninstall, you will need to:

• Remove the two xConnect windows services (with sc delete [servicename])
• Remove the Sitecore and xConnect webroots
• Remove the databases from SQL Server

If all you wish to do is overwrite an existing SIF-installed instance, removing the databases and re-running SIF should be sufficient if it's like the preview was.

Answer 2

@Dylan Young, did you solved the uninstall problem ?

Manual way to uninstall an instance of Siteocre 9 involves few steps, but it is not that bad. Assuming that your installation instance is prefixed with xp0Demo then:

• Remove the two xConnect windows services (with sc.exe delete [servicename] in poweshell as administrator or in cmd.exe as administrator too)
  • xp0Demo.xconnect-MarketingAutomationService
  • xp0Demo.xconnect-IndexWorker
• Remove the Sitecore and xConnect website and application pools from IIS
• Remove the Sitecore and xConnect webroots
• Remove the databases from SQL Server prefixed with xp0Demo
• Stop the Sorl service and remove the indexes prefiex with xp0Demo from folder c:\solr\solr-6.6.2\server\solr\
• Hosts entries that are prefixed with xp0Demo should be removed too

Also I've tested the procedure on a Sitecore 9 update 1 and its exactly the same, not changes required.

In here https://xtremdev.wordpress.com/2018/01/09/sitecore-9-uninstall-my-take/ you can see all details about uninstall of Sitecore 9, in a post that I've wrote, including details for SIF-less uninstall.

Answer 3

The first thing that you need to start with gathering all information about what should be uninstalled. In an easy way you can select a website to uninstall:

$selectedWebSite = (Get-WebSite | Out-GridView -Title "Please select website to uninstall" -OutputMode Single )

Base on this you have information about Website and App Pool to remove, you also have a physical path to remove

 $physicalPath =  [System.Environment]::ExpandEnvironmentVariables($selectedWebSite.physicalPath) 

SIF comes with tasks to manage AppPool and Website Invoke-ManageAppPoolTask, Invoke-ManageWebsiteTask. We extend this with a 'remove' feature.

'remove' {

                try
                {
                    Get-WebAppPoolState -Name $Name
                    Write-Verbose "Stopping App Pool '$Name'"
                    Stop-WebAppPool -Name $Name
                    Write-Verbose "Removing App Pool '$Name'"
                    Remove-WebAppPool -Name $name
                }
                catch
                {
                    Write-Warning -Message "App Pool $Name not exist"
                }

            }

'remove'{
                try
                {
                    Get-WebsiteState -Name $Name
                    Write-Verbose "Stopping Website '$Name'"
                    Stop-Website -Name $Name
                    Write-Verbose "Removing Website '$Name'"
                    Remove-Website -Name $Name
                }
                catch 
                {
                    Write-Warning "Site '$Name' not exist."
                }

            }

You also need to remove databases and users.The best place to find information about this is connectionstring.config.

Then you just to delete databases and users. A good example how to collect those data is here Select-Website

To delete database just invoke a simple command with parameters

Invoke-SQLcmd -ServerInstance $SQLServerName -Query ("DROP DATABASE [" + $database + "]")

Ready to use tasks to remove users and databases are here https://github.com/SoftServeInc/SitecoreInstallExtensions/blob/master/SitecoreInstallExtensions/Tasks/SqlTasks.ps1

Answer 4

As Kam Figy mentioned, there is no current command available in SIF to do such a thing. I would also add that in order to avoid getting Process-in-use type errors, ensure that the sites/ app-pools in IIS are stopped and that the Solr Cores are removed. Also make sure that the two services are completely removed - remove any processes in Task Manager that may be lingering!

I was having the exact same experience that you described though, so I wrote a small and rudimentary script to remove the various services, processes and websites running in order to get you back to a clean environment.

It is very much a WIP but let me know if it's helpful!

https://github.com/Sitecorgi/UninstallSitecore9

Answer 5

Thomas Eldblom put together a nice package using Sitecore Extensions to install and uninstall an instance of Sitecore. I find this works great for me and my dev instances.

You really have to familiarize yourself with it. But it is a nifty way to install and uninstall Sitecore.

https://github.com/Eldblom/sifdemos

Parameters.ps1

Parameters pulls together all the locations and files like normal.

# General Args
$prefix                 = 'sugcon_xm0'
$configsRoot            = Join-Path $PSScriptRoot Configs
$packagesRoot           = Join-Path $PSScriptRoot Packages
$licenseFilePath        = Join-Path $PSScriptRoot '..\\license.xml'
$sqlServer              = '.'

### Sitecore ###

    # Install Sitecore
    $sitecoreStandalone = @{
        Path                = Join-Path $configsRoot sitecore-xm0.json
        Package             = Join-Path $packagesRoot 'Sitecore 9.0.1 rev. 171219 (OnPrem)_single.scwdp.zip'
        LicenseFile         = $licenseFilePath
        SqlDbPrefix         = $prefix
        SiteName            = $prefix
        SqlServer           = $sqlServer
    }

Uninstall.ps1

Nice simple ps1 to bring it all together and execute the SIF configuration task.

# Bring parameters into scope
. $PSScriptRoot\parameters.ps1

$uninstallArgs = @{
    Path = Join-Path $configsRoot "uninstall.json"
    Prefix = $prefix
    SqlServer = $sqlServer
}

Install-SitecoreConfiguration @uninstallArgs

Uninstall JSON

Json task doco to detail what to uninstall using the SIF task manager.

// 20180824164803
// https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Eldblom/sifdemos/master/2_xm0/Configs/uninstall.json

{
  "Parameters": {
    "Prefix": {
      "Type": "string",
      "Description": "Prefix used for sites, solr, databases etc"
    },
    "SqlAdminUser": {
      "Type": "string",
      "DefaultValue": "sa",
      "Description": "The Sql admin user account to use when installing databases."
    },
    "SqlAdminPassword": {
      "Type": "string",
      "DefaultValue": "12345",
      "Description": "The Sql admin password to use when installing databases."
    },
    "SqlServer": {
      "Type": "string",
      "DefaultValue": ".\\SQL2016",
      "Description": "The Sql Server where databases will be installed."
    }
  },
  "Variables": {
    "All.With.Prefix": "[concat(parameter('Prefix'),'*')]",
    "Install.Path": "[joinpath(environment('SystemDrive'), 'inetpub', 'wwwroot',variable('All.With.Prefix'))]",
    "Sql.ConnectionString": "[sqlconnectionstring(parameter('SqlServer'), '', parameter('SqlAdminUser'), parameter('SqlAdminPassword'))]",
    "Sql.DropDatabasesScript": "[resolvepath('..\\5_uninstall\\dropdatabases.sql')]"
  },
  "Tasks": {
    "RemoveWebsites": {
      "Type": "RemoveWebsite",
      "Params": {
        "Name": "[variable('All.With.Prefix')]"
      }
    },
    "RemoveAppPools": {
      "Type": "RemoveWebAppPool",
      "Params": {
        "Name": "[variable('All.With.Prefix')]"
      }
    },
    "RemoveServices": {
      "Type": "RemoveService",
      "Params": {
        "Name": "[variable('All.With.Prefix')]"
      }
    },
    "RemoveInstalledContent": {
      "Type": "Remove",
      "Params": {
        "Path": "[variable('Install.Path')]",
        "Recurse": true
      }
    },
    "RemoveDatabases": {
      "Type": "Sql",
      "Params": {
        "InputFile": "[variable('Sql.DropDatabasesScript')]",
        "ConnectionString": "[variable('Sql.ConnectionString')]",
        "Variable": "[concat('prefix=', parameter('prefix'), '%')]",
        "OutputSqlErrors": true,
        "Verbose": true
      }
    }
  },
  "Modules": [
    "SqlServer",
    "..\\5_uninstall\\extensions.psm1"
  ]
}

Answer 6

I follow it in following 4 steps.

1. Open SIM, delete the instance from there, select "no" for removing database
2. Stop Solr Service, delete solr core from the folder, start Solr Service
3. Open SQL Server, delete all related databases in bulk using script https://stackoverflow.com/a/3281190/3959541
4. Delete XConnect site from IIS

Answer 7

if you want SIF to support uninstalling a Sitecore instance, please file a support ticket at https://support.sitecore.net/helpdesk/ and ask to link it with a feature request #204173, and #250404 if you want it to repairs / reinstalls.

Answer 8

I hope this script can help to automate removing all those artifacts https://github.com/medkrimi/UninstallSitecore/blob/master/uninstall.ps1

It removes :

• Sitecore Website
• Hosts
• Sitecore files
• SQL Databases
• SSL Certificates (Make sure your are not sharing them between diffirent instance if you are in dev.local)
• Solr Cores
• Application Users