Can you rename a Windows 2003 Domain?
So we learned recently that Microsoft has made great strides in allowing you to rename a domain in Server 2003. They have provided a tool but remember this CAN NOT be used on a Windows 2000 domain and will cause you lots of problems.
With this being said here was the situation:
A company was bought out by another company and wanted to retain the purchased companies domain structure while just changing the domain name. Google an Admin’s best friend returned this page from Technet…
Here is the direct link to the tool and a excerpt from the Microsoft site (But we recommend reading the whole thing before you begin!)…
The Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Domain Rename Tools provide a security-enhanced and supported methodology to rename one or more domains (as well as application directory partitions) in a deployed Active Directory forest. The DNS name and the NetBIOS name of a domain can be changed using the domain rename procedure. For an understanding of the constraints of the domain rename procedure, please see the accompanying document, “Understanding How Domain Rename Works,” available on this page.
Note: These tools are for use with Windows Server 2003 only. Do not use them with Windows 2000.
Worked like a charm. Everything is up and running – so far so good! But the real test will be in the morning. When we attempted this about 10 years ago on a NT domain it was horrible and just didn’t work. Microsoft sure has come along way!Have you renamed a domain? How did it go? Hit us up in the comments…





January 20, 2009 - 4:49 am
That link in this article takes you to the tool download. Where is the MS article about this tool or similiar?? Thx
Jon
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Karl L. Gechlik | AskTheAdmin.com Reply:
January 20th, 2009 at 5:11 am
Hey Jon – I think this is what you are looking for…
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/bb405948.aspx
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June 24, 2009 - 9:11 am
Does this work to rename into a subdomain? We’re looking to migrate our company.com to company.parentcompany.com. would this tool do the trick? Or are we going to need to do the AD Migration (of which I’ve already tried out a bit and am now stuck with trying to access exchange 2003 from another forest, and migrating from one forest on exchange 2003 to exchange 2007 on a different forest.)
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Karl L. Gechlik | AskTheAdmin.com Reply:
June 25th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I have never tried it for this. It might and it might not… I will have the pleasure of trying this out in about 8 months – so def let me know how it goes! Your documentation will make my life MUCH easier :)
Thanks for reading.
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