After renaming the machine name still able to ping the old machine name?

Question

We have renamed our machine [Windows 2008 R2] name and it asked for restart. we did it.

But still we are able to ping the old machine name and it responds.

Strange thing is even we are able to ping the new machine name and it also responds.

[I checked that whether it is different machine or not by verifying the IP address. But IP address is same. So it should be the same machine]

How it occurs? How to make it recognize only new machine name?

If some scripts are run, our application should work even after machine rename.

But we are unable to test this as we are unsure whether machine rename takes effect.

boburob · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-01 11:55:45Z

I imagine the answer for this is in your DNS records.

Make sure your domain controllers have no record of the old machine name in your forward lookup zones.
Make sure there is not entry in the DHCP table.
Make sure the DNS entry is not locally cached, you can check if it is on a windows machine by opening command prompt and typing ipconfig /displaydns and clear it out of the list using ipconfig /flushdns. If it stays in your dns list, make sure you do not have a host file entry for this server.

tombolinux · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-01 20:24:28Z

This is the microsoft way to manage the name resolution:

the client checks to see if the name queried is its own. Troubleshooting: in this case no, you have renamed and rebooted the machine.
the dns resolver cache is used to resolve the hostname. Troubleshooting: maybe? Is the old name reloaded from a misconfigured dns?
the DNS servers are queried. Troubleshooting: maybe? Have you reconfigured your DNS servers and restarted the services?
the NetBios name cache is used. Troubleshooting: maybe? Is the old name reloaded from a wins server not updated?
if all fail to resolve the name, the Wins server service is used. Troubleshooting: maybe? Have you restarted the wins server or waited that the name is refreshed?
NetBios broadcasts from other server. Troubleshooting: no. Beccause it search for himself.
the client then searches a local Hosts file, lmhosts or hosts wich is in the %Systemroot%\System32\Drivers\Etc directory. Troubleshooting: no(?).

references:

MDMarra · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-01 12:38:50Z

1

Because there's probably a DNS A record for the old name that hasn't been scavenged yet (if you have scavenging enabled).

answered Aug 1, 2012 at 12:38

MDMarra

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synthor · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-31 17:10:30Z

If there's really no old DNS record or old entries in the cache this should fix it.

There are two registry settings containing still the old hostname:

AlternateComputerNames in HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Dnscache\Parameters

and

OptionalNames in HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\LanmanServer\Parameters

Change both values to the new servername, reboot the machine and it won't appear in the computer network list with the old name.

It's even not accessable via \oldservername in an explorer window.

Worked for me. :)

4 Answers 4