Hi,

I have a deployed Lync environment (Enterprise FE, Archiving/Monitoring servers) and our IT group would like to rename the servers.  Has anyone had to do anything similar?

I haven't been able to find any guidance on this issue, from investigating myself I'm thinking the process would go something like;

• Rename the Archiving/Monitoring server
• Update topology with new server name
• Probably have to do some fiddling with Reporting Services here.
• Publish topology
• Rename the Enterprise FE
• Update topology with new server name
• Publish topology

The IP of the server isn't change so my pool information should be fine.

Has anyone else tried to do this?

Greg

It is not supported and won't work.

Every Lync Server is defined in topology builder by it's FQDN and saved in the CMS. Topology builder does not allow you to change it afterwards. Also, Lync setup works based on server FQDN so it is highly dependant on computer names. 

If you want to have different hostnames, you can deploy a second enterprise FE in your pool and remove the existing afterwards. Your poolname remains the same but as far as I can see this is not an issue. You'll have to reinstall the archiving/monitoring server afterwards,

If you want an "official" confirmation, please contact Microsoft product support.

Thanks Ruben, yes this might be the best approach to sub them out with new servers.

The front-end was the one I was most worried about, for the archiving/monitoring server I pretty much though I could decommission the role, change the name, add the role back in using the new FQDN.  There might be a couple of additional hooks but by and large this would be the easy one to do.  In between the steps I could republish the topology.

Thanks.

You're welcome!

If this was the answer for your question, could you mark it as answer so users with a similar question can easily find it? Thanks

Hi,

For Archiving/Monitoring server, you need to remove them from topology builder. Reisntall the server OS, and change them name to the new one. Add the new one on the topology builder and install the Archiving/Monitoring services on the server.

For FE server, if you have more than one FE server in the pool and want to change one server's name. You can delete it from topology after you are sure there is no user connect with it. Reisntall the server OS, and change them name to the new one. Add the new one on the topology builder and install FE services on it.

IF only one server on the FE, you need to add another one server in to pool first. After you rename the server and add it to the pool, then delete the temporary server.

Hi Ruben and Sean

I have a similar dilemma in my Standard Lync topology.

My Front end server has the same FQDN as the Lync pool and I think this may be causing problems in routing calls when external users make voice calls.

Is your idea to add a second front end server viable or even possible with Lync Std edition? My Lync servers are all VM's so I guess I would want to create a new FE server with a different name and then decommission the original one? There is very little information regarding what I am trying to do here on the web, so any help you can offer would be most gratefully received!

Kind regards

Bryan Smith

Take a look at Renaming Lync Servers for some pointers with regards to this subject.

Please share with us if this helps. Thanks.