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I understand it is possible to create a SQL Server alias on a per-client basis via SQL Server Configuration Manager, but is it possible to do it globally, on the target SQL Server server?

My goal is to ultimately decommission an older SQL Server box, and move its DBs to another SQL box, and not have to rewrite code/VBA scripts/etc accessing the old SQL Server. I would also change the DNS entry for the old server and have it point to the new one. I am hoping to avoid needing to make changes in SSCM on every client.

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  • @eckes I can't change the existing server name - I need to add an alias to the SQL Server. And what exactly does "script the change for a rollout" mean?
    – Brie
    Commented May 3, 2017 at 12:18

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With a standalone SQL server? Not that I'm aware of. With availability groups you can specify a name for the group, which gets registered as a canonical name, but that's probably out of scope of what you're doing.

That said, changing the DNS entry is typically sufficient (just cname the old name to the new one). I've done this multiple times in the past when replacing an SQL server.

That said, you really should update your clients to connect to the correct name where possible, just to make troubleshooting in the future easier. Changing the DNS entry can buy you time to get this done.

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  • With AGs it is called a listener and you can have multiple. In DNS generally you'd make a CNAME and use it as an alias.
    – Sean Gallardy
    Commented May 3, 2017 at 17:59

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