Changing to SQL alias after installing MOSS

Question

Our network admin installed MOSS using the SQL Server address instead of using the SQL alias. How can we change this after the fact? We tried using a simple stsadm commmand to change server name but then MOSS CA would not open, stating Configuration DB unavailable.

There is no way in CA to change the SQL settings to an alias that I've found.

Answer 1

You can use the SQL alias tool (cliconfg.exe) on your server to just create an alias with the original servername, and then point it to the new one. This way SharePoint will not be aware of the changes, but will hapilly connect to the new server. Even if you don't want to change to a new server right away, you can still use it to introduce an alias - pointing to the same name if needed.

• "Server Alias" -> OriginalServerNameUsedBySharePoint
• "Server Name" -> NewServerNameToBeUsed

Just keep in mind that this alias will affect all SQL client related connections originating from this machine that used the original servername.

Answer 2

Looks like the stsadm command to change server name is just very finicky;

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263117.aspx

stsadm -o renameserver -oldservername -newservername

We couldn't strip the port out the command line so rolled back the install and re-installed using the PSConfig command.

Moral of story, install MOSS with your alias first! ; )