changing server name that is running sql server

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Jay B - 10 Dec 2006 19:24 GMT

I am running sql server standard 2005.
after developing a solution, i have decided to change the name of the
server to something different. everything appears to work at the ssms
and on each client.

but i ran into some issues with other apps that were caused by the
change in server name, which prompted me to search thru the registry
looking for the old server name, and found numerous occurrences of the
old server name, which in some cases i changed to the new server name.
especially found items like reportserver$oldserver$, etc.

is there a better way to tell the instance of sqlserver that i have
officially changed the server name?
and are there any hidden gotchas i should be aware of in changing the
server name?

thanks Jay

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Jay B - 10 Dec 2006 20:15 GMT

to clarify, i changed the name of the actual fileserver, which is a
poweredge, running windows enterprise 2003.

> I am running sql server standard 2005.
> after developing a solution, i have decided to change the name of the
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>
> thanks Jay

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Brett I. Holcomb - 10 Dec 2006 20:20 GMT

Can you use a DNS alias to point the old name to the new one? This works
for some apps unless they are written only to use the netbios name of the
server.

> to clarify, i changed the name of the actual fileserver, which is a
> poweredge, running windows enterprise 2003.
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>>
>> thanks Jay

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ukam@brunata-muenchen.de - 11 Dec 2006 12:47 GMT

Save all of your DB's inclusiv master, uninstall SQL Server, reinstall
SQL Server, stop SQL Server and copy back your DB's , start SQL Server.
It's all.

Uwe

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Kevin - 12 Dec 2006 16:15 GMT

> Save all of your DB's inclusiv master, uninstall SQL Server, reinstall
> SQL Server, stop SQL Server and copy back your DB's , start SQL Server.
> It's all.
>
> Uwe

That sounds kind of extreme! With Sql Server 2000, you could use
sp_dropserver to drop the old servername, then use sp_addserver to add
the new server, ensuring you specified @Local = 'local'

I would assume similar functionality (if not identical) is available
for Sql Server 2005. But since I am not using Sql Server 2005, I am
only speculating.

HTH,

Kevin Alons

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Jay B - 12 Dec 2006 16:52 GMT

i changed the name of the file server that sqlserver is running on.
the name of the sqlserver instance did not change. it is still default.

it seemed a little extreme to me too, but i'm holding that as a last
resort if i continue to have any other issues. gotta do more testing.

>> Save all of your DB's inclusiv master, uninstall SQL Server, reinstall
>> SQL Server, stop SQL Server and copy back your DB's , start SQL Server.
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>
> Kevin Alons

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ukam@brunata-muenchen.de - 13 Dec 2006 10:13 GMT

@Kevin and Jay B

ok it is extreme, extreme easy. I'm sure there is a more sophisticated
way. But in 15 or 20 Minutes all is done and nothing can be forgotten
to do.

Uwe

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Jay B - 16 Dec 2006 06:12 GMT

just to report back,
it seems that everything is working OK without having to reinstall SQL
from scratch.
i just changed the server name using system properties (it was not a
primary domain or using active directory)

and i used the reportserver configuration wizard to change the server
name there, and had to change a few of the datasources which had the old
server hard coded, and everything works!

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