Hi

I have been setting up a a UAT deployment hosted on  Windows 2012R2, needed to mimic a live server installation.  Everything seemed to be going really well inc a standalone AD until I realised my Computer Name was greater than 15 characters. Now I gather from Technet that this Netbios Name is a hangover from WIndows NT 4 even though there is a nominal max length of 63 characters.

I am assuming that the 15 character length is still required for AD services so do I simply Shorten my Computer Name - apart from the reboot is anything else I should do?   Alternatively, I wonder if the name can be changed via PowerShell or local policy. If so is this likely to impact the other installations I will be putting on this server.

Thanks for reading this 

Hi Daniel,

I assume that the computer is still a standalone server, in which case, changing the host name and a reboot is enough.

To rename host name via PowellShell, please refer to this article below:

Rename-Computer

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh849792.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

If the computer is a Domain Controller, there are other things to consider such as it is not supported in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 or Exchange Server 2010, also not supported if the DC is Certification Authority. In addition, there are more steps to perform in order to update the changes in the domain.

More information for you:

How Domain Rename Works

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc738208%28WS.10%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

How to rename domain netbios name ?

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/windowsserver/en-US/c17db509-25e3-45fb-812a-638ef65f6781/how-to-rename-domain-netbios-name-

Best Regards,

Amy