Renaming a SharePoint server


How to change the server computer name with MOSS

These instructions relate specifically to my VM configuration. I found many references on the internet for doing this and most omitted a step or included other steps. It was extremely frustrating spending the time doing this to have it fail. Finally I discovered another reference that indicated “stsadm updatefarmcredentials” was required. This was missing in other recipes. In addition, this recipe includes changing IIS identities, very possibly the problem that was occurring before.

The error I was getting after unsuccessful attempts: “some or all identity references could not be translated”. This occurred when navigating to the operations page, for example.

Old server name: SHAREPNTSERVER
New server name: OMITTED

User name: administrator
Password: password

Server name change steps

1. Change alternate access mappings

Go to Operations in Central Administration. Select Alternate access mappings. Change them all to reference the new server name. See figure 1.



Figure 1

2. Change URL in favorite (if necessary)

If you saved a favorite to the site, change that to reference the new server name.

3. Run stsadm to rename server. See figure 2.




Open a command prompt. Navigate to the following directory:
C:\program files\common files\Microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\bin

Stsadm –o renameserver –newservername “OMITTED” –oldservername “SHAREPNTSERVER”


Figure 2.

4. Reboot server

5. Update credentials. See figure 3

Open a command prompt. Navigate to the following directory:
C:\program files\common files\Microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\bin

Stsadm –o updatefarmcredentials –userlogin “OMITTED\administrator” –password “password”

Figure 3.

6. Restart IIS. See figure 4

From the command prompt type:
Iisreset /noforce

Figure 4.

Change all identity references in IIS

Figure 5

Highlight the pool and view properties. Go to the identity tab. If the pool is using the “predefined identity” leave it set. Do not change it to configurable.

You will definitely need to change Shared_Services_One, the two SharePoint and the SharePoint Central Administration. Be sure to review all the others to ensure they are correct.

Figure 6.

This is what the identity looks like before changing. Note the old server name. Simply edit the computer name portion of the user name, enter the password and click apply.



Figure 7

You will be asked to confirm the password. Enter it and click okay. Then click OK to exit the pool properties screen. Continue changing the remainder.


7. Drop and rebuild search index. (didn’t do this step yet)


8. Browse to URL for Central Administration and test site.



Comments

puy0 said…
That works better when these steps done BEFORE changing server name ;) (takes me some time to figure it)

Thanks for the tips, especially for the credentials part.
Angst said…
Thanks so much for posting this information. Was easy to follow, and much appreciated. Seemed to work for me with minor tweaks on the order of a few commands - don't know why it wouldn't take -newserver -olderserver; I had to do it in the order -oldserver -newserver for instance. But other than that, worked like a charm.
Unknown said…
I have just figured out a better order of steps to get a server renamed. I tried this several times using a hyper v vm, and kept reverting to the fresh clone to try different scenarios. I finally figure it out.

I tried running the sharepoint configuration wizard after the steps above and it kept saying fail. I was told that I should always be able to run this. I am not sure if it is necessary, but it kept failing. The way around this was to run update farm credentials after changing the server name. Since I had to do it at the end, I got rid of the update credentials in the beginning. I also got rid of the initial restart since you need to after changing the computer name.

Here are my steps (I didn't have to change mappings, since my application uses www.myserver.local and they all will, they are all stand alone developers machines.)


1. rename server using stsadm renameserver
2. Change app pools
3. change computer name (forces a restart)
4. update farm credentials
5. configuration wizard (successful)

This is slightly faster because there is one less restart and is also a little more complete since the update farm credentials at the end allows you to run the config wizard, which whether it is necessary or not, I think it is better if it runs without an error.
Would this steps works if the MOSS server was a domain member?
Unknown said…
I have created sharepoint site with the name http://spd/test and now i want to change the root name of the site like http://www.xyz.com.
Can anyone please help me to give the solution for this without changing the machine name .
Juice said…
This was great, thanks, save me a ton of time.
JamesLiang said…
It's so great, I follow up Jared's commentary, but still failed.
Greg Zook said…
@JamesLiang: this is only proven to work on SharePoint 2007 (MOSS). Are you trying to rename a 2010 server?

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