The internal transport certificate cannot be removed because that would cause the Microsoft Exchange Transport service to stop

Chicago Area Laptop for rent: $35 per day plus $10 for additional day

The internal transport certificate cannot be removed because that would cause the Microsoft Exchange Transport service to stop

Situation: When trying to remove Certificate in Exchange 2010, you may receive this message;

Microsoft Exchange Error
--------------------------------------------------------
Action 'Remove' could not be performed on object 'testssl'.

testssl Failed Error: The internal transport certificate cannot be removed because that would cause the Microsoft Exchange Transport service to stop. To replace the internal transport certificate, create a new certificate. The new certificate will automatically become the internal transport certificate. You can then remove the existing certificate.

Case 1: You must create a new certificate. After create the new certificate, remove the old certificate. basically, make sure both old and new certificates must be assign the same service.

Case 2: the client has created the new certificate, but he can't remove the old one with above message. We found the old certificate was assigned IIS also and the new certificate was assigned SMTP only. The resolution is assigning IIS to the new certificate and then remove the old one.

Case 3: Run get-exchangecertificate to list all of the certs

find the thumbnail for the one you want to remove

run remove-exchangecertificate -thumbnail "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

Then, choose the thumbnail you want to use for SMTP and then run

enable-exchangecertificate -thumbnail "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" -services smtp

Post your questions, comments, feedbacks and suggestions