Hi, I'm sorry but yesterday I mistakenly asked this as a discussion rather than a question so I'm re-posting it here.
I've been trying to figure out if it's possible to rename the domain name that I chose when I installed a new Server 2016 Essentials. The domain is already in use on site so I need to use a different one. I have already removed the Essentials Role from the server and have added a new domain but when I try to add the Essentials Role back onto the server it still uses the original Domain name not the new one. I can't seem to find out how I move the server to the new domain and remove the old domain reference from DNS.
Or do I just need to completely reinstall from scratch?
Note: There are no other servers in the domain but it will be replacing a SBS 2011 Essentials server that will exist on the network until it is decommissioned. I am currently setting it up offline.
Thanks in anticipation.
Ian.
Ian,
How did you rename the domain name? Did you use this tutorial How to rename an Active Directory domain name of a Windows Server 2012 R2 with the Essentials Experience role installed?
You mention that the new server will replace an older SBS 2011 Essentials but did you migrate that to the new server you are now trying to rename the domain?
Hi Mariette, thanks for the reply.
I used a combination of tutorials and YouTube, I may have read the one you mention too but I l know it involved the procedure to remove the Essentials Role as you can't rename with the CA installed I read. That all went well and I now have a server that doesn't have Essentials installed. BTW, the server hasn't been migrated, I decided to start a fresh as we only have around 12 users, there is a SQL Server DB used for line of business too but only SQL Express, nothing too large.
So the server is clean essentially.
I followed instructions here: https://youtu.be/cx9CzLl58MA to rename the domain and that was successful in that it created the new DNS zone and domain but the server still has the Full Computer Name of servername.OLDDOMAIN.local rather than servername.NEWDOMAIN.local even though the domain is NEWDOMAIN.local
Now if I try to add the Essentials Role back it still wants to bind it to the OLDDOMAIN.local I presume that I may need to remove AD completely and re-install it using the new domain name.
Now hang on a minute here! Having typed this lot out so far I decided to take a look through your link above and I think I've found the missing link in STEP 4 of your procedure. 4. Use netdom utility to rename the Active Directory Domain Controller This looks like the step that I haven't been able to find until now. I will read through that and further steps and report back.
OK, rest assured that the method described in How to rename an Active Directory domain name of a Windows Server 2012 R2 with the Essentials Experience role installed works always for me. You have to be very precise and not miss one step.
OK, so having now looked at that does it mean that I have to re-run the gpfixup again or is having run that before the netdom command a problem?
You need to run gpfixup after you have done the actual rename. If you run it before you rename it does not make any sense but when I think about it that could cause issues. Why did you do that?
Why did I do that, good question, the answer is that the video to rename a domain that I followed simply doesn't mention that step, and I had no idea about that step until I came here. What course of action do you suggest that I take?
Hi Mariette,
Thank you for your advice so far but I'm still at a loss as to how I should proceed with this, do you think that I should re-install the server completely? Or is it not too difficult to re-install AD from scratch?
Reinstalling AD and by doing so deleting your domain and creating a new domain will invalidate all user accounts, computer accounts and permissions. You need to recreate all user accounts manually and also join the computers to your network. Not good. Same for reinstalling the server.
I can offer to help you through premier support but that will be after June 17th because I am on a short break.
Good morning Mariette,
Agreed, but I haven't started doing anything with the server yet, it's completely free to do whatever I need to do even if it means starting completely from scratch and reinstalling. I was treating this as a way to learn a bit more. Whereas reinstalling seems the easy thing to do I thought it might be a good idea if I tried just setting up the AD again. As this is a Dell server and it came preinstalled reinstalling AD might actually be the easier route even. Is there a quick way to restart the initial setup all over again?
I really did ought to get this server installed this week.
Well I've still not got any further with this new server project yet. What I would like to now I think is to simply start again with a fresh AD install and re-apply the Essentials Role all from scratch, is there a tutorial on here that I can follow to help me do that?