Upgrading to AD and don't want to lose Shares

[John Wtkins]

Hello:

I'am planning an AD upgrade this weekend. The question I
have is this:

We bought a new server to house our main AD Server and our
network shares.The new server will NOT have the same name
as the old server. Is there a way to point the old server
name to the new server name and have the share still work?
Example:
Server1 has 2 shares: share1 share2
Server1 will be decomissioned after AD upgrade
Server1's shares will be moved to server2.
point server1 name to server2.

 

[Marty List]

Depending on how your clients do name resolution, you could just add a DNS
and/or WINS alias.

Supposedly you can add multiple NetBIOS names to a computer, I've never
actually done it though. There is an API that I know of that I am
interested in using, I've just never had the need. If an alias won't work
for you and you don't get a better response, post a follow up here and I'll
throw together an executable for you that calls the
'NetServerComputerNameAdd function. You would then schedule my executable
to launch at system startup:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/netmgmt/netmgmt/netservercomputernameadd.asp

The NetServerComputerNameAdd function enumerates the transports on which the
specified server is active, and binds the emulated server name to each of
the transports.

The server specified by the ServerName parameter continues to support all
names it was supporting, and additionally begins to support new names
supplied by successful calls to the NetServerComputerNameAdd function.

Name emulation that results from a call to NetServerComputerNameAdd ceases
when the server reboots or restarts. To discontinue name emulation set by a
previous call to NetServerComputerNameAdd without restarting or rebooting,
you can call the NetServerComputerNameDel function.

The NetServerComputerNameAdd function is typically used when a system
administrator replaces a server, but wants to keep the conversion
transparent to users.

 

[Dean Wells [MVP]]

Hello:

I'am planning an AD upgrade this weekend. The question I
have is this:

We bought a new server to house our main AD Server and our
network shares.The new server will NOT have the same name
as the old server. Is there a way to point the old server
name to the new server name and have the share still work?
Example:
Server1 has 2 shares: share1 share2
Server1 will be decomissioned after AD upgrade
Server1's shares will be moved to server2.
point server1 name to server2.

In addition to Marty's excellent response, consider using a CNAME (alias
resource record) and, most importantly, disabling strict name checking
on the target server (a registry modification ... I'm working offline at
present and can't research the key/value for you I'm afraid).

Either solution will provide a satisfactory result (I only say that as
I've used a couple of utilities I believe Marty wrote and they all work
as claimed ... a rarity these days - LOL

HTH

Dean