I’m working on a domain rename plan – but just the NetBIOS domain name. There are lots of caveats and warnings out there about being really careful and maybe it’s better to just migrate etc. However, I’ve done one of these in production around the 2008R2
release timeframe, and it went pretty well. We figured out that if we shut the computers down before the rename, except for the DCs, that we could rename the domain and just boot everything back up afterwards – and avoid the double-reboot that all the domain
rename articles describe. I cannot seem to find anything more about this approach. However….
I have modeled this in my lab, with 2 DCs and 9 clients, plus a trust with another domain. This is for a 2012R2 domain, BTW. I have 2003R2, 2008R2, 2012R2, Windows 7, and 8.1 clients. I’ve gone through the rename 7 times now. I just renamed if from DOGSANDCATS
to BIRDSEED. Three times now, I have done this with all clients running. This time, I have Wireshark running on both DCs, and am watching the traffic. What I am seeing is that the computers are picking up the new NetBIOS namewithout a reboot. And in Wireshark I see NBNS protocol traffic like this:
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This happens when:
1) on a 2003R2 server, I use the drop-down and select BIRDSEED from the list of domains (computers were NOT rebooted, they were ON during the name change)
2) on Windows 7+, it shows DOGSANDCATS but I just enter my username and password, and it says bad username or password, kicks me back to the login, but now shows BIRDSEED as the domain. And there are those packets in Wireshark. usually 4 registration
packets. And notice they are broadcast packets…
So… does anyone have experience with this? Has anyone actually tested it like I’m doing, leaving the computers running, with just a NetBIOS name change of the domain? I’m seeing this consistently, but I can only find instructions that say you must reboot
twice. Things are greatly simplified if I can avoid the rebooting. I’m about 95% sure we should:
1) Enable Do not display previous login name (that did cause issues)
2) put in a logon banner for those who read that says something like “Sign in with your email address and computer password, and if that won't work, try rebooting your computer once or twice before calling the helpdesk”, and
3) deal with the one-offs as they occur, and
4) just leave everything running when we do this over the weekend, maybe restart a few servers but for the most part just let Windows pick up the new name
BTW the forest trust still works without client reboots or recreating it, and gpupdate works on the clients. GPRESULT /H shows the old domain unless I reboot, but talking with a group policy expert, he thinks this is a bug and can’t think of where it’s getting
that old name either.And we also are getting rid of Exchange, that’s the only thing I could find that has a known issue with the NetBIOS rename.