I am trying to rename a Windows Server 2012 server.  After I enter the Active Directory credentials it fails with this error:

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The following error occurred attempting to rename the computer to "new-name":

The directory service is busy.

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I don't see anything in the event logs on the domain controller or on the server I am trying to rename.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Jason

Hi Jason,

How about running a powershell cmd Rename-computer to rename a domain computer, and check if there has any error :

Rename-computer computername computer newname newcomputername domaincredential domain\user force restart

For more detailed information about running the powershell to rename computer, please refer to this article:

How to rename a domain computer with Windows PowerShell

Best Regards,

Anna

Hi Anna - Thanks for the thought. 

Same error.

Hi Jason- did you find the solution to this? I am having the same problem. Server 2012 R2, w/ SQL 2012 installed. I have a mix of Server 2003 & Server 2012 R2 domain controllers. I wonder if my old 2003 DC is causing the problem.

Please look at the SPN for the computers machine object.

We have seen a SPN like:

MSSQLSvc/machine1.contoso:SQLEXPRESS

If we remove the SPN we can rename the machine.

the rename look to be trying to fix up the SPN's and this one looks not to be in a format I recognize. It has the SQL instance name instead of the port number.

• Proposed as answer by Abhimanyu Panwar Wednesday, October 01, 2014 9:21 AM

Please look at the SPN for the computers machine object.

We have seen a SPN like:

MSSQLSvc/machine1.contoso:SQLEXPRESS

If we remove the SPN we can rename the machine.

the rename look to be trying to fix up the SPN's and this one looks not to be in a format I recognize. It has the SQL instance name instead of the port number.

• Proposed as answer by Abhimanyu Panwar Wednesday, October 01, 2014 9:21 AM

I was also facing the same issue and resolved it by removing the SPN name for SQLServer.

Below are the steps I used to fix this issue :-

1. Open Command Prompt with Run as Admin with account having admin permission in that domain.
2. Type "setspn -l ServerName" and see the result. I got below result :-

               C:\Windows\system32>setspn -l ServerName
               Registered ServicePrincipalNames for

               CN=ServerName,OU=XYZXYZ,OU=EDGE,OU=PRODUCTION,DC=phx,DC=gbl:
               MSSQLSvc/ServerName.phx.gbl:SQLEXPRESS
               MSSQLSvc/ServerName.phx.gbl:64723
               HOST/ServerName.phx.gbl
               RestrictedKrbHost/ServerName.phx.gbl
               TERMSRV/ServerName.phx.gbl
               WSMAN/ServerName.phx.gbl
               HOST/ServerName
               RestrictedKrbHost/ServerName
               TERMSRV/ServerName
               WSMAN/ServerName

3. Now from above list, look for all the entries with name : "MSSQLSvc/ServerName***". In my case we found two entries :

MSSQLSvc/ServerName.phx.gbl:SQLEXPRESS
MSSQLSvc/ServerName.phx.gbl:64723

4. Now you have to delete these two SPN entries. Use below command to delete the SPN entries :

setspn -d MSSQLSvc/ServerName.phx.gbl:SQLSERVER ServerName

setspn -d MSSQLSvc/ServerName.phx.gbl:64723 ServerName

Now you can rename the server name easily.

ADUC Computer Account Properties also lets you change this under the attribute editor tab. Only have to remve the line for SQLExpress SPN in my case:

MSSQLSvc/PC-NAME.domain.com:SQLEXPRESS

That worked for me!  Thanks

Does this break anything concerning the SQL running on the host?  If so, what is the best way to get around renaming the computer?  I am renaming to match a standard naming convention but do not want to affect functionality of the host.

• Edited by LyonsPope 11 hours 49 minutes ago

Does this break anything concerning the SQL running on the host?  If so, what is the best way to get around renaming the computer?  I am renaming to match a standard naming convention but do not want to affect functionality of the host.

• Edited by LyonsPope Friday, May 15, 2015 7:12 PM

I had the same issue this morning - A pre-existing domain joined 2008 R2 server, which was migrated (Hyper-V to VMWare) and then wouldn't let me rename the guest.

Kept getting the 'directory service busy' error when trying to rename, however network connectivity was fine. Dropped the machine from the domain and rebooted, renamed & then rejoined the network without any issues. HTH.