This post is from Terry Bieritz who works with me as a Developer at Pacific Software Associates. I hope you find it helpful. When he contacted me for help on renaming a SharePoint server, I was frightened by the task. Terry went it alone and documented his steps per my request. We are lucky to have a such a talent here at PSA. I hope you find this helpful:
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
*** NOTE: Use only letters, digits and minus for the machine name (so no underscores), max 15 characters.
User name: administrator
Password: password
Server name change steps
Step 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
Step 2. Change URL in favorite (if necessary)
If you saved a favorite to the site, change that to reference the new server name.
Step 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.
Step 4. Rename your Server via Change Name Operation in Windows Server 2003:
Start Menu | Control Panel | System, "Computer Name" tab, "Change" button. Input your new server name
Reboot the server NOW.
Step 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.
Step 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.
Step 7. Drop and rebuild search index. (didn’t do this step yet)
Step 8. Browse to URL for Central Administration and test site.