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- Take a Standard checkpoint of the Domain Controller if this is a Virtual Machine or take a Full Windows backup if this is a physical machine. This will ensure that any errors you get along the process you can revert back. If there are multiple DCs in the domain I suggest a Full Backup or Standard checkpoint of each prior to starting this task.
- Adding an alternate computer name
- netdom computername oldname-dc-01 /add:newname-dc-01
- Make the new name the primary
- netdom computername oldname-dc-01 /makeprimary:newname-dc-01
- Reboot the server
- Remove old hostname
- netdom computername newname-dc-01 /remove:oldname-dc-01
- Once you are happy the Domain controller has been renamed, check Event Logs and run DCDIAG to check for any errors then remove/merge the snapshots if this is a virtual machine