Domain Rename

[Bezwick]

Our School changed its name in September as part of a publicity drive by the new Headteacher as a result on all our XP and Windows 7 machines they are still logging on to a domain based on our old name. He is unhappy by this and wants me to change it, at this point i had a a cold chill run down my spine and momentary panic set it. Unable to form sentences as i was pertified with fear, i am writing this post in an attempt to see just how bad this is.

 

Has anyone here done this on a live enviroment? If so was it as bad as it sounds and how did it affect you?

 

Cheers

[Mr.Ben]

Do you run exchange? - Domain Rename is not supported by MS - they say that you need to build a new domain and have a cross forest trust.

[SYNACK]

Domain rename is doable even with Server 2k8 R2 but anything above exchange 2003 requires a domain trust and account migration that way.

[Bezwick]

Luckily we don't have Exchange as all our emails are handled by the LEA. I was thinking more on how does it effect the clients, WDS, DFS, services, local profiles etc.

[Michael]

Without Exchange installed, you can do it from 2003 Server or 2008/2008 R2.

[SYNACK]

You need to keep the same NetBIOS name for a domain rename using dfs, if not all your links break. May need to build a new domain, add a trust then migrate everything across that way.

[cpjitservices]

I'd do what I did when moving over from Novell, build a new domain in AD, set up trusts between them and migrate everything over.

 

Easiest way.

[AngryTechnician]

Domain renames are a festival of pain. It is as bad as it sounds. The last time I saw it done (against advice, and due to a school rename), they ended up having to rejoin all 600+ of their workstations to the new domain name manually, and reset everyone's profiles.

 

Honestly, I suspect a migration may be easier. I've done that before and it wasn't as much trouble as the guys had doing the rename. Of course, it could all be down to planning.

 

If the head insists on making this part of their vanity project, make sure they understand it WILL cause problems for a while and that they commit to taking the heat off of you when there are complaints.

[SYNACK]

If the head insists on making this part of their vanity project, make sure they understand it WILL cause problems for a while and that they commit to taking the heat off of you when there are complaints.

 

Oh and make sure that you rename it something like ASchool.School.internal so that you don't need to play the roulette wheel of irritation again.

[Bezwick]

Thanks all, that is pretty much what i expected to hear. Last time they changed the name i ended up having to rebuild and entirely new network and suspected a migration would be easier.

Appreciate the input. Cheers

[mavhc]

Just ignore all requests, and when asked say you're waiting for a free 3 months of time in your schedule to implement it, and ask how much they'll be willing to pay you for overtime.

[cpjitservices]

to rejoin machines to the domain - when we migrated from Novell to AD we built a brand new win 7 image which joined the new domain on installing Windows in WDS.

 

Once the machines had rebooted they had a fresh copy of Win 7, Office etc and where on the new domain. No messing about. It was quicker than rejoining all our machines to the domain manually.

 

All our users could login, had mapped drives, printers etc etc!

Edited November 2, 2012 by cpjitservices

[SYNACK]

to rejoin machines to the domain - when we migrated from Novell to AD we built a brand new win 7 image which joined the new domain on installing Windows in WDS.

 

Once the machines had rebooted they had a fresh copy of Win 7, Office etc and where on the new domain. No messing about. It was quicker than rejoining all our machines to the domain manually.

 

All our users could login, had mapped drives, printers etc etc!

 

Good call good opportunity to bang out a fresh image, I plan to do that with Office 2013, possibly 8 and Office 365.

[maark]

I did this over the summer - Active directory on 2003 schema - nerve-wracking but went ok - followed some guides found by searching on here mainly.

All machines have to be restarted twice - problems if you have laptops away from network - i took staff laptops off domain before they went for summer and joined them to new domain.

Is a summer job really - you need time in case things go wrong. Had a few profile issues but not many.