Caveats when renaming a server and giving a new server the old server’s name?

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We have a new 2008 R2 server to be replacing a 2003 R2 server (which is a DC and has DNS/DHCP/DFS/etc.). Here’s an outline of my plan…

  1. Rename the old server to ServerOld
  2. Give the new server the name of the original server (Let’s say Server)
  3. Migrate all services to the new server
  4. Demote ServerOld from being a DC and unjoin it from the domain

Are there any issues arising from renaming a DC and then giving a new server its old name immediately afterward?

Answer

If the server is only performing DC/DNS services, this is usually safe; just be sure to reboot it a couple of times, because a single reboot may not be enough to fix everything.

Also, make sure the server is not hosting any other service (file shares, database…), or you could run into problems.

For reference, there are two well-known cases in which you absolutely can’t rename a Windows server: if it’s a Certification Authority, or if it’s running Exchange.

Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Bigbio2002 , Answer Author : Massimo

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