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Renaming a Domain Controller

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KapsZ28

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This is probably a dumb question, but I just have to ask. I work with people that whenever they replace a domain controller, especially migrating from 2003 to 2008, they always use a different name for the new domain controller that is replacing the old domain controller. When they do this, they frequently have problems with applications, folder redirection, etc that is still pointing to the old domain controller. Therefore they have to manually fix A LOT of crap because of it.

From reading this from Microsoft about server 2003, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc782761(v=WS.10).aspx, even if you only have one domain controller, you can still rename it.

So, if you are replacing a DC called ABC-DC01 with a new server, can you still use the same name on the new server?
 
I don't think using a different name for a dc is a bad thing. Makes for an easy upgrade to join the dc to the domain. let AD replicate. Move stuff as accordingly and then retire the old DC. Lots of that stuff just takes planning and unfortunately things can get over looked when retiring an old DC.


Plan Plan Plan Plan
 
Last edited:
calvinj said:
I don't think using a different name for a dc is a bad thing. Makes for an easy upgrade to join the dc to the domain. let AD replicate. Move stuff as accordingly and then retire the old DC. Lots of that stuff just takes planning and unfortunately things can get over looked when retiring an old DC.

Plan Plan Plan Plan
Click to expand...
Here here, like the saying "your planning is not my problem" ;)

Hmmm bad praktisch allround.. (you can rename a server, if you should is a other answer)

Using a DC as a fileserver/application server ? (try to move the shares to DFS first)
Pointing to server name instead of "domain name"
Did you check if the FSMO roles are stil working ?

Sounds like they walk into the server room, put the win2k8 CD in and reboot without "checking".
if thats the case and old servernames still appair in the AD users and computers .. goto your IT management En tell them get ready for a .... hitting the fan (large one)

If they do it correctly by running a
dcpromo.exe /demotion (or something like that)
Than it's just remainder of Bad IT admins that didn't read the book how to do their work (no certification or learned only the exam answers) in that case hope the current admins do their job correctly


Answer to your question:
Simply renaming can also break the same stuff (so no quick fix for your problems). Might remove some needed fixes. But also might introduce a lot of new Issues. And all files / fixes/paches/ old files keep building on old machine.
Just demote te old DC, install from scratch a new DC. cleaner and on the long run less problems.
 
calvinj said:
I don't think using a different name for a dc is a bad thing. Makes for an easy upgrade to join the dc to the domain. let AD replicate. Move stuff as accordingly and then retire the old DC. Lots of that stuff just takes planning and unfortunately things can get over looked when retiring an old DC.


Plan Plan Plan Plan
Click to expand...

The biggest issue we have is that we support small businesses and the domain controller is also used as a file and print server and sometimes more. Because of this, we have to make sure everything is updated and pointing to the new DC. Some of our clients have applications that need to be manually updated which makes for a lot of extra work.

Because of this, it would be a lot easier to use the same name for the new server.
 
vso1 said:
Here here, like the saying "your planning is not my problem" ;)

Hmmm bad praktisch allround.. (you can rename a server, if you should is a other answer)

Using a DC as a fileserver/application server ? (try to move the shares to DFS first)
Pointing to server name instead of "domain name"
Did you check if the FSMO roles are stil working ?

Sounds like they walk into the server room, put the win2k8 CD in and reboot without "checking".
if thats the case and old servernames still appair in the AD users and computers .. goto your IT management En tell them get ready for a .... hitting the fan (large one)

If they do it correctly by running a
dcpromo.exe /demotion (or something like that)
Than it's just remainder of Bad IT admins that didn't read the book how to do their work (no certification or learned only the exam answers) in that case hope the current admins do their job correctly


Answer to your question:
Simply renaming can also break the same stuff (so no quick fix for your problems). Might remove some needed fixes. But also might introduce a lot of new Issues. And all files / fixes/paches/ old files keep building on old machine.
Just demote te old DC, install from scratch a new DC. cleaner and on the long run less problems.
Click to expand...

Speaking of DFS, I noticed at one of our clients that DFS was setup correctly, but then someone setup their home directories to point to the server name instead of the DFS name. Pretty dumb since if DC1 goes down, it won't automatically failover to DC2.

I am not looking to rename domain controllers that have already been in existance. This would be for migrations, so I don't see how any permissions would get messed up since one server will be brand new and the old one will be removed.

If I already had 2 domain controllers, it seems like it would be pretty easy. Transfer the master roles to the second domain controller, uninstall AD, rename the server that used to be the PDC. Now I can take my new server and give it the same name as the old PDC and complete the migration.

With a single DC, it looks like there would be some extra steps. Transfer roles to new server, uninstall AD, rename server, reinstall AD, transfer roles back. Then go through renaming the new server to the previous PDC name and completing the migration.

Of course this is just to avoid downtime. If done after hours with just a single DC enviornment, couldn't you just migrate to the new DC, demote and remove the old DC, then rename the new DC to the old DC name?

If using netdom, this should take care of the SPN and DNS so everything is registered correctly.

If the DC was just a DC and not an app or file server, this wouldn't be an issue. But because of the way these servers are being used, I would think keeping the same name is better than using a new name.
 
I was just thinking. Even if you just have 1 DC, can't you still use DFS naming? If that is the case, then we could just setup DFS for our clients and always use the DFS name instead of the server name. This way if you migrate to a new DC, as long as your DFS and shares are setup correctly, everything will still be pointing to the correct location.

Only downside for us if the applications that are already pointing to a server name. Those won't update automatically and will need to be corrected. But most likely we could update them through the registry.
 
DFS works with only one server, you have to set up the namespace on something to start with lol.

If they've got only once DC though you can \\domainname\ which will resolve to the server anyway. Not sure if that's good or bad practice but whatever.
 
KapsZ28 said:
I was just thinking. Even if you just have 1 DC, can't you still use DFS naming? If that is the case, then we could just setup DFS for our clients and always use the DFS name instead of the server name. This way if you migrate to a new DC, as long as your DFS and shares are setup correctly, everything will still be pointing to the correct location.

Only downside for us if the applications that are already pointing to a server name. Those won't update automatically and will need to be corrected. But most likely we could update them through the registry.
Click to expand...

If you setup DFS and use the domain namespace you could also replicate locally the files to a new share. Might not catch everything if you store stuff on there that you don't share, but it's a start.. Robocopy off the rest at a later time.

Having used DFS before between locations it's pretty nice. Over kill in some situations
 
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