Migrate old file server to new server (NetBIOS Alias)

Objective:

1. We want to retire \\oldserver and migrate all sharing to \\newserver.  As a result, all the UNC path will be changed from  \\oldsever\myshare   to \\newsever\myshare 
2. This create a large inconvenience, since the UNC shortcuts for those resource (as the shortcut is everywhere, in users shortcut or favorites, batch job, DTS job, etc).  Can we keep the old UNC path?
3. We would like to access \\oldserver\myshare and actually the application can open \\newserver\myshare.  The change should be transparent to end-users or applications to minimize the impact to jobs and users.

Yes, we can.  NetBIOS support multiple NetBIOS names on a single server.  We can even consolidate two old servers into one new server.  The new server can hosts three NetBIOS names.

The below example show how to retire two old servers (OLDSERVER and OLDSERVER2) and migrate the NetBIOS name into a single new server (NEWSERVER)


Steps:

1.     Deregister old server from AD

2.     Shutdown old server

3.     Delete old server entry from AD (if not deleted in step 1)

4.     Add CNAME record in DNS to point to new server e.g. OLDSERVER -->; NEWSERVER

5.     Add registry entries at new server as below:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters]
"Alias"(REG_MULTI_SZ)=OLDSERVER [ENTER] OLDSERVER2
"OptionalNames"(REG_MULTI_SZ)= OLDSERVER  [ENTER]  OLDSERVER2
"DisableStrictNameChecking"(REG_DWORD)=1

6.     Restart "Server" (lanmanserver) service at new server by using Services MMC.

7.     Verify the result by run nbtstat -n at the command prompt newserver:

Team 1:
Node IpAddress: [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] Scope Id: []

                NetBIOS Local Name Table

       Name               Type         Status
    ---------------------------------------------
    NEWSERVER      <00>  UNIQUE      Registered
    DOMAIN         <00>  GROUP       Registered
    NEWSERVER      <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
    OLDSERVER      <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
    OLDSERVER2     <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
    DOMAIN         <1E>  GROUP       Registered

You can see that the new server register itself using its own name (NEWSERVER) and the old server names (OLDSERVER and OLDSERVER2) as well.


Reference: serverfault.com