Combining a Windows 2003 server – the hidden pitfalls

I needed to migrate some data from an old server onto a new server and after moving the data (thanks robocopy) I needed to ensure that the clients would be able to find the new location. Creating the shares with the same name and then changing the login scripts should make everything work ok, but just in case something has the unc path encoded I did the following (see the extended entry). Read the extended entry for the surprise ending that I had to do!

  1. Turned off the old server and unplugged the network cable to prevent accidental connection to the network
  2. Removed the old computer name from Active Directory
  3. Added a hostname in dns with the old computer name to point to the ip address of the new server. This should really be an alias (cname) but for some reason it wouldn’t work if I did that.
  4. Downloaded and installed setspn from Microsoft Resource Kit to the new server.
  5. From a dos prompt where setspn is extracted to (program files \ resource kit) entered “setspn -a HOST/oldname newname
  6. Also ran “setspn -a HOST/oldname.domainname.local newname
  7. I then tested the setup on a client pc and then everything worked

    Finally I called the burglar alarm company as the alarm went off in the midst of this even though I’ve been there 1.5 hours already!