Change Computer Name of Server to the Old Server

Question

My situation right now is that I am in the process of migrating the old server (Windows Server 2003 on a Civo PC) to the new one (Windows Server 2012 R2 on a Dell R710) and so far the migration process has been going smoothly. However, when I take down the old server, I was planning on renaming the new server to what the old one was named to remove the hassle of letting everyone know that the server name has been changed (They frequently use File Share, and they access it by entering the computer name of the server). Is this possible? And if yes, what are the possible problems that I possibly will encounter?

Answer 1

It depends on the role of the existing and new server. If these are file servers only then you can simply rename the old server to something else and then rename the new server to the old servers name without any problems. If the new server is a domain controller and you already promoted it, then you will not be able to rename the machine unless you demote the server and rename it. The only other role that would cause a problem is certificate authority which would prevent you from renaming the machine.

Answer 2

Yes, you can change the name of your new server to the old server. However, the method for which you would do this can vary greatly between which roles the server is serving on your network. For the most part, however, regardless of what roles the server is serving, but you may encounter some problems along the way.

For example, as Joe mentioned in his answer, if the server you're trying to rename is serving as a certificate authority (i.e. with AD CS), then changing the name may cause invalid certificate authority errors because the certificate's assigning authority is the old name. However, this should be solved relatively easily for most environments by regenerating all of the certificates and pushing them from server-side.

If the server is a domain controller, there is a process to rename it, but it's a royal pain in the butt. AD DS includes a command known as the netdom command, and within that command, there is a sub-command known as "computername", which facilitates the changing of computer names for domain controllers by changing the name that the server uses to identify itself to directory services and DNS. I don't specifically remember what netdom does differently to just changing the name from System Properties (sysdm.cpl from the run prompt), but I remember that the former is the Microsoft-recommended solution if you absolutely have to rename a domain controller after its deployment.

For most other things, it should be fine to just rename the server using the System Properties page. However, this also largely depends. I've seen some server rename operations go terribly wrong for unexplainable reasons especially when dealing with SMB. Additionally, if the IP address is different, prepare for client DNS caches to become a problem, as they will most likely try to resolve the server DNS name with their own resolver caches before contacting the DNS server, a cache that is likely to take some time to expire.