[AD] Renaming domain controllers in Windows 2003

Windows Server 2003 introduces a new feature that allows you to rename a domain controller, enabling you to rebuild your network based on your organization and business needs, and enhance management flexibility. The following is an example of detailed implementation steps and considerations.

1. First, look at the name of the current domain controller (desktop, My Computer, properties, computer name): You can see that the current domain controller's FQDN name is www.df.com.

2. Execution: Start, run, CMD, switch to command line mode.

3. Input netdom, you can see that NETDOM provides a rich selection of parameters.

4. Like many command-line tools, the Netdom command is also a command-line tool for context-related patterns that provide context-related parameters and descriptions, depending on the input parameters. For example, enter netdom add to echo the child commands associated with Add. (Note: netdom provides a number of parameters that allow you to perform a variety of functions, where you can only describe commands that are related to domain controller renaming.) ）

5. Using the enumerate parameter, view the computer name that the domain controller is currently configured with the following syntax:

netdom computername Computername/enumerate:{alternatenames | Primaryname | Allnames}

Where ComputerName is the FQDN name of the current domain controller, enumerate is a filter that can have the selected output of the name Category: Allnames (Show All), AlternateNames (alias only), Primaryname (displays only the primary name), the default is all displayed.

For example: netdom computername www.df.com/enumerate

You can see that there are currently and only one FQDN name: www.df.com.

6. Below, add a new FQDN name using the Add parameter, which is the following syntax:

netdom computername Currentcomputername/add:newcomputername

CurrentComputerName--current host name, can be FQDN or IP

NewComputerName--new host name added, format FQDN, note DNS suffix to be consistent

For example: netdom computername www.df.com/add:smtp.df.com

You can see that the command has been properly executed, using the preceding view command if you can see that a new alias has been added successfully: smtp.df.com.

7. The following uses the Makeprimary parameter to promote the alias as the primary name, and the syntax is as follows:

netdom computername Currentcomputername/makeprimary:newcomputername

For example: netdom computername www.df.com/makeprimary:smtp.df.com

Change the DC principal name to smtp.df.com, the ScreenTip command completes correctly, and the new name does not take effect until it restarts.

8. After the reboot, look at the domain controller's current FQDN name, you can see the name has been successfully renamed to Smtp.df.com.

9. After you confirm that the rename was successful, you can remove the old FQDN name with the Remove parameter as follows:
netdom computername newcomputername/remove:oldcomputername 

For example: netdom computername smtp.df.com/remove:www.df.com

So far, the DC rename work has been completed successfully.

Note:  

1. To enable renaming of a domain controller, the domain controller must be a version of Windows Server 2003 and have a functional level in 2003 native mode. By default, the new 2003 Server domain controller works in Windows 2000 mixed mode and needs to be upgraded to 2003 native mode (AD users and computers, operations, all tasks, elevation of domain functional level) through "AD Users and Computers".

2. Renaming a domain controller with netdom essentially modifies the SPN properties of the domain controller in the Active Directory and updates the DNS records, which are automatically replicated to other DCs and DNS.
3. After the primary name is promoted, the client retains access to the old name before restarting. The
4.netdom is a system support tool that must be installed prior to use (CD: \support\tools\suptools. MSI).