Domain Rename

[TechieSooner]

Has anyone ever done this?

A few worries and questions I have:

• The "FQDN" of the PCs would be changed. Does this touch the clients? Does everything have to be re-joined to the domain?
• The profiles on the PCs are in Documents and Settings\TechieSooner.OLDDOMAIN, so does this mean the profiles will be re-created, or renamed?
• Exchange- would this screw with that at all?

Or anything else I should be aware of? I know Microsoft has some documents on it, but at over 100 pages it's ridiculously in-depth.

 

[joblo37pam]

Theoretically it can be done, but it's messy. There's a reason there are 100 pages in that document.

I looked into it once for a customer, but it appeared to be cheaper/easier/more reliable to just build a new domain in parallel, then set up a trust and move users/computers/etc. However, it was a fairly small operation, so touching every computer wasn't a big deal. May not be practically in your case.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

The workstations/clients do not have to be rejoined to the domain. They will have to be "touched" though....when you hit ctrl+alt+del to login..that 3rd line that shows the netbios name of the domain, you'll have to hit the drop down menu and it will automatically populate with the new netbios name of the new domain name. You don't really have to do it, if you prepare a document for the end users with pictures I'm sure.

Outlook may have to be retouched....older versions. Newer versions roll with the flow a bit better.
I used the steps in the following links when I performed it. I did it on an SBS box...which isn't really supported.
http://thelazyadmin.com/blogs/thelazyadmin/archive/2006/06/07/Domain-Rename-Part-1-_2D00_-Setup.aspx

http://thelazyadmin.com/blogs/thela.../08/Domain-Rename-Part-2-_2D00_-Renaming.aspx

http://thelazyadmin.com/blogs/thela...omain-Rename-Part-3-_2D00_-Exchange-2003.aspx

For me Exchange didn't migrate 100%. I had to keep a lookup zone in DNS with the old domain name in there.

 

[LoStMaTt]

If it is just being renamed for "name's" sake then just don't do it.

I had a customer that changed their company name and wanted their Windows Server domain name to reflect it and my thoughts were that it would just be best to leave it where its at.

The server and all the workstations were running PERFECTLY, no reason to start messing it up.