This is not really recommended if you think about it. How many of you eventually decided that one day, you need to rename your domain controller? I bet no one. But there are unusual cases where you do not have any other choice but to do it.
That's what happened to me when I was building my virtual image of a Windows Server 2003 domain controller. I accidentally plugged in my automated installation CD. To my surprise, the installation has generated a random name for my machine. Although I could demote the domain controller, change the hostname, and promote it back, it would be very time consuming with all those reboots and manual steps. Searching thru Google gave me this site which recommends the use of the Netdom.exe tool. You do need to install the Windows Support Tools to use this tool. To change the hostname of the domain controller, open the command prompt associated with the Windows Support Tools. Then, run the following command
netdom computername oldhostname.domainname /add:newhostname.domainname
Although there are other instructions mentioned in the article, I only needed this command. After rebooting the server, I ran dcdiag.exe (Domain Controller Diagnostics Tool) and netdiag.exe(Network Connectivity Test Tool in the Windows Support Tools command prompt to validate the connectivity to the domain controllers. Knowing that you have the right tools available would make life a bit easy for any professional - whether in IT or not
