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My current problem is the following migration scenario:

Present infrastructure based on Windows Server 2003 ( I know is is very old ;-) All are virtualized VMs. Existing domain name : PXX.LOCAL 2 Domain-Controller : PXX-DC0 and PXX.DC1 2 Terminal-Servers : PXX-RDS1 , PXX-RDS2 1 Printer Server : PXX-PRT 1 File Server : PXX-FS This File Server has about 10 SHAREs (Named : ABC1 , ABC2 , ABC3 etc ) Al of these servers (and also the clients ) are on the same subnet 192.168.33.xx (255.255.255.0)

In the next months we need to start to build a completly new environment based on Windows Server 2016 ( at last ;-) All are virtualized VMs. We are doing this becasue we are changing our ERP system (very old and that is why we are stuck on the 2003 environmeent) with a completly new one. All of these Servers will be on a new subnet 192.168.52.xx/23 (VLAN based).

These 2 network can comunicate thru our gateway switch so that the PCs 192.168.33.xx could (in the future ) connect to the new servers.

These 2 domains need to be active togheter for some months (until we could shutdown the old one when we will be working with the new one system)

My questiones are:

With a new domanin named as : PYY.LOCAL - can I use the SAME Computer Name for the new servers as the old one? - can I use the same SHARE name for the new file server as the olds ?

My problem is that I need to bring in the new environmeent the same SERVER-NAME-OF-THE-FILE-SERVER and the same SHARE-NAMES so that I can migrate all the 800.000 files from the old file server to the new one without asking to all my employees to change something in their files ( like excel/word links inside their documents).

Many thanks for your help. Pierluigi

Jenny D
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Plg Dfn
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1 Answers1

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With a new domanin named as : PYY.LOCAL - can I use the SAME Computer Name for the new servers as the old one?

Yes, you can use the same name as the old one. Assuming that what you mean is this:

  • ComputerName.PXX.Local (old FQDN)
  • ComputerName.PYY.Local (new FQDN)

How well using "ComputerName" by itself (not the FQDN) is going to perform and produce predictable behavior is going to be dependent on your domain suffix search order.

Can I use the same SHARE name for the new file server as the olds? This should be the same answer as above - you can do it, how well it will perform (in terms of predictable behavior) is going to depend on domain suffix search order.

My problem is that I need to bring in the new environmeent the same SERVER-NAME-OF-THE-FILE-SERVER and the same SHARE-NAMES so that I can migrate all the 800.000 files from the old file server to the new one without asking to all my employees to change something in their files ( like excel/word links inside their documents).

I would recommend using DNS aliases for this in the future. Rather than having your users access \ServerRealName\sharename in their documents & whatnot, make an alias in DNS that can be pointed to whatever you'd like. That way \SharedStorageAlias can be agnostic of the underlying server. This lets you migrate the files in the future (after hours) and not disrupt your users. It will be worth the one-time effort to have people move to using the alias.

Rob Pearson
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  • Thank you very much Rob. I read it so thank to your advice I went more inside the problem. I googled about using, as you suggested, DNS alias and I came across an Microsoft articole that explain to avoid using DNS but use instead NETDOM command. I will try toput here the two links I have found. I'm interested having your opinion about that. Thanks. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3181029/smb-file-server-share-access-is-unsuccessful-through-dns-cname-alias and https://argonsys.com/learn-microsoft-cloud/library/using-computer-name-aliases-in-place-of-dns-cname-records/ – Plg Dfn May 24 '18 at 09:42
  • Skimming the 2nd article you mentioned (the argonsys one) that appears to be a good way to go. I just use the DNS console instead of Powershell, but it appears to have the same effect. – Rob Pearson May 25 '18 at 05:07