Windows Server® 2012 Unleashed

Changing the Server Core Machine Name

After the Server Core installation is complete, another common task is to change the machine name of the server. By default, Windows automatically generates and assigns a server name starting with WIN and followed by a string of characters. The syntax to change the Server Core machine name follows:

netdom renamecomputer <CurrentComputerName> /newname:<NewComputerName>

When executing this command, replace the <CurrentComputerName> argument with the existing hostname (which can be found using the hostname command) and the <NewComputerName> argument with the new machine name for the Server Core installation. Changing the server name from Win-123 to ABCDC2 is depicted in the following example:

netdom renamecomputer ...