I have a standalone SharePoint server 2007 that I have been using for testing. That server is also running the SQL server for the content databases. The server is named: SERVER1. I want to replace that server with a new one that will be the real production server. The new server is called SERVER2 and sharepoint is already installed and ready on it. I want the users in the network to call the new server using the old server name. I am considering creating an alias record on the DNS server with the old server name but pointing to the IP of the new server. After shutting down the old server and creating the DNS alias to the new server do I need to do any configuration on the new SharePoint server for this alias to work properly? I want to this because I think it will be an easier solution that renaming the new server.

I would suggest creating a Host entry instead of alias name. After creating a Host name of Server1 that points to the IP of Server2. You will need to add the Server1 in intranet zone in Alternate Access mapping under Central Administration. You can follow the article on the following link on how to edit the AAMs. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288173.aspx Also make sure to delete the original Server1 Host entry before creating a new one. Hope that helps. -Mukesh

When you install SharePoint on Server2, I guess the load balanced URL you use when creating web applications is something like http://Server2:port/, so the resulting AAM can be something like what follows: Internal URL Zone Public URL http://server2:port/ default http://server2:port/ You should update both Internal URL and Public URL in AAM to http://server1:port/ as Mukesh said. However, instead of update AAM directly, please follow the recommended procedure in http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc298636.aspx to: 1. Central Administration > Application Management > Remove SharePoint from IIS Web site; 2. Central Administration > Application Management > Create or Extend Web Application > Extend Web Application to Another IIS Web Site So that the setting in IIS will always in sync with the setting in SharePoint configuration database. Gu Yuming TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com