I am looking to rename a Domain Controller. Functional level and everything else means I can use netdom to carry out the process. Looking a the technet article on the subject I can see the first step is to add the name to the domain controller:
netdom computername <CurrentComputerName> /add:<NewComputerName>
The second step is to then make the new name primary:
netdom computername <CurrentComputerName> /makeprimary:<NewComputerName>
Before removing the old name after replication etc:
netdom computername <NewComputerName> /remove:<OldComputerName>
To enable a smooth transition I was thinking of retaining the old name to avoid any systems that reference the OldComputerName to still connect while they are tracked down. By omitting the step to remove the old name will I be fundamentally breaking the way it is designed to work? In my mind it would create a new SRV record for the new name and the old record would still exist. But I am not sure if this would break replication of AD (Server 2008 DFL/FFL with 2008 and R2 boxes).
Best Answer
It sounds like you want to avoid building a new machine with your current naming conventions. This may create more work than anticipated.
There are many items in AD DS that are tied to your DC's name. I am not sure that everything in DNS would be updated once you changed the name. A cleaner and more controllable approach would be to stand up a new Machine with the computer name you want Promote to a Domain Controller. You can then move roles to the new DC, power off the old box wait. If a problem comes up all you need to do is Power up the old DC instead of Backing out the Name change change.
When doing anything to a DC with regard to ComputerName it is always better to stand up a new box (VM or physical) for the single reason of having a clean backout plan.