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I need to migrate a domain controller(windows server 2012 r2) to new hardware but I need it to have the same hostname since several dev systems and scripts are pointed towards the hostname by necessity.

Best practice seems to be install a new server with a new hostname, promote it to domain controller then transfer all roles and such to that server from the old one and then demote the old one but that would leave me stuck with the wrong hostname.

We have two domain controllers DC01 and DC02, it is DC01 that i need to migrate to new hardware so how do I go about this the best way?

The roles/features running on DC01 are AD DS, DHCP, DNS, NAP, WDS and IIS.

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    Is DC01 running more services or only ADDS? In order to help you I'd like to understand WHY you need to migrate the DC without changing its hostname, as you seem to know which the best practice would be, there should be a good reason. This info is lacking in the OP, and it's important for you to receive best possible help. Commented Nov 9, 2017 at 13:41
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    these dev systems and scripts are pointed to a hostname, what if the hostname would be an alias of the new one? This won't work for some Windows services. Commented Nov 9, 2017 at 13:55
  • I've updated the post with the services/roles. I'm not sure if all dev systems involved support alias, some are built in house so might have to be rewritten causing more work Commented Nov 9, 2017 at 14:20
  • This issue will happen on windows based services and is related to AD’s SSO Commented Nov 9, 2017 at 14:26

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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There is no problem renaming a domain controller. Here is the suggested procedure:

  1. Set up new DC as DC01-new.
  2. Rename DC01 to DC01-old and reboot.
  3. Reboot DC01-old again.
  4. Make sure AD replication has occurred. If you only have these 3 DC's in a single site, this is easy to check by looking for the renamed DC in AD Users and Computers and connecting to each DC.
  5. Rename DC01-new to DC01 and reboot.
  6. Reboot DC01 again.
  7. Make sure AD replication has occurred. If you only have these 3 DC's in a single site, this is easy to check by looking for the renamed DC in AD Users and Computers and connecting to each DC.
  8. Demote DC01-old.
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  • Won't this cause any issues? Change name using system settings or netdom? Commented Nov 9, 2017 at 14:45
  • I’d love to know if this is gonna work! :) Commented Nov 9, 2017 at 15:05
  • See technet.microsoft.com/library/cc794951(v=ws.10).aspx. You can do it either way, although netdom is the preferred method. Commented Nov 9, 2017 at 16:52

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