We are running Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise and have joined the server as a member server to the domain. We would like to remove the server from the domain and rename it. Then re-join the server back to same domain. Can we do this without having to rebuild the server from scratch?Can we use the same computer object in AD, or should we delete it and have it re-created during rejoin? There has always been disagreement in our shop about need to rebuild from scratch. Some say only when server is DC. Others say always rebuild it. Thanks in advance!Bill

1. Can we do this without having to rebuild the server from scratch? No need to rebuild the server, just remove it from the domain, reboot and join it back to the domain. 2. Can we use the same computer object in AD, or should we delete it and have it re-created during rejoin? No need to delete computer account, active directory will reset the account when you rejoin the computer o domain. This is standard AD activity hence no need to be paranoid. :) Sachin Gadhave (MCP, MCTS)

Yes, that was my thinking too. Just needed others to validate for my colleagues at work. Thanks to all who responded!Bill

Hi All, Also if you have Dyanmic DNS or AD based DNS in your environment then, no need to register in your DNS entry also. Again for verification purpose, kindly get into the nslookup cmd, try to ping for the server IP; verify whch host FQDN it get resolves.

Not only do you not have to rebuild, but in my testing of 2008 R2 - you don't even have to disjoin > reboot > rename > reboot > rejoin > reboot as indicated by others in this thread. I realize this was the case with all prior versions of windows, but I've tested by simply renaming the hostname and rebooting - the computer object was automatically updated in AD and I was able to log onto the server with my domain credentials and verify thenew name stuck and it still showed joined to the domain. I'm sure most people would feel more comfortable going through the laborious process mentioend above, but truthfully - this was long overdue for Microsoft to improve upon, so I for one, am happy to see they've finally done it. The only caveat here of-course, is that if you installed applications that wrote the hostname into a reg key or an .ini file somewhere (like many different monitoring tools do) you'll need to manually locate those references to the old name and change them). This is why many people opt to simply rebuild a server in large corporate environments if it was just built with a mis-spelling of the name.