Adding alternate DNS name to a Server

If DNS name resolution is the only thing you need, you can either manually add an A record in the DNS server to point the old server name to the same IP address of the new server or add a REG_Multi_SZ registry key to the following location:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNSCache\Parameters\AlternateComputerNames

One FQDN per line and run ipconfig /registerdns for the change to take place.

Adding alternate NetBIOS name to a Server

Add a REG_Multi_SZ registry key to the following location:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanManServer\Parameters\OptionalNames

One NetBIOS name per line and restart the server once done.

If you are adding an additional NetBIOS name to the same server, you most likely will need to access a shared network resource through that name. If that’s the case, you might need one more step to run the following command in an elevated Command Prompt to allow NTLM authentication for the new alias.

setspn -A host/host_servername alias_name

Just in case, if you encounter an error saying that the Target account name is incorrect when trying to access a shared file server after adding the name, you may need to use the setspn command line to check and remove the old NetBIOS name from another server.

A few resources

• Multiple server names on Windows
• Disable Strict Name Checking
• Setspn command

Here is a step-by-step Walkthrough:

1. Add iSCSI Target Server role on Windows Server.
2. Adjust the firewall rules to allow iSCSI service to go through.
3. Add a registry value AllowLoopBack = 1 to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\iSCSI Target to make sure the iSCSI Target allows the LoopBack mode
4. Create a virtual disk as a RAMDisk
   1. New-IscsiVirtualDisk -Path "ramdisk:testRAM.vhdx" -Size 1GB
5. Create a target iSCSI
   1. New-IscsiServerTarget -TargetName targetRAM -InitiatorIds @("IPAddress:X.X.X.")
6. Launch the iSCSI Initiator for the Server Manager console.
7. Connect to the iSCSI target created in Step 5.

Sounds like a very interesting idea to set up a RAMDisk through iSCSI target.

The old file/printer server was also a VM with the data storage on a separate virtual disk so that I can easily detach the disk and attach it to the new server. That’s the beauty why all servers should be running in a virtual environment.

So here are the steps I took to finish the migration.

1. Install Windows 2008 R2 on a new virtual machine, and have it ready.
2. Disjoin the old File/Printer from the domain, and shut down the server.
3. Detach the data storage virtual disk and attach it to the new Server 2008 R2 server.
4. On the new server, take the new data storage online and create the share with the same share name as the old server.
5. Add an alternative computer name to the new server.
   1. Netdom ComputerName newserver /ADD oldservername
   2. IPConfig /RegisterDNS

It’s important to run IPconfig to register the new computer name to the DNS server.

On the client side, the easiest way is to restart the computer. The new DNS entries will take place after the reboot. Or, if rebooting the computer is not an option to certain computers, restarting the Workstation service will also do the trick as well.

Thanks to this Technet blog post for inspiration.