What is required to move a SharePoint 2013 server to a new domain with the same domain name?

Question

I have read the posts I could find about moving SharePoint and believe I would be better served to ask this question independently because of the special circumstances surrounding this move.

The domain controllers for the network stopped replicating. After diligently trying to fix the problem, it became clear simply creating a new set of DCs would be quicker. That is accomplished and the 2 DC's replicate, the secondary holds up the domain if the primary is removed, and actions taken on the secondary are replicated back to the 'primary' when it is brought back online.

Now the task is to move the TFS server with SQL which includes a SharePoint 2013 installation. This is a small single server system. The TFS server is a VM that has been exported to provide a backup of the existing machine.

I believe the unusual circumstance here is that the new domain has the same name as the old domain. The following checklist at this link is being followed to make the move. The only difference I will follow is to move the TFS server to WORKGROUP first, then to the new domain. I don't know for certain, but I don't think things will work well to move the domain straight away from a domain to a domain with the same name. I'm thinking it is best to add the intermediate step to the WORKGROUP.

I would appreciate confirmation of the best way to move the server and have SharePoint come up afterwards with a minimum of difficulty. What additional factors do I need to consider?

While a SharePoint integration with TFS exists at the present time, if it doesn't exist after the move that won't be a disaster since part of the network reconfiguration includes bringing up TFS2017, initially without SharePoint integration. But the existing SharePoint 2013 server has a good deal of data on it that needs to be preserved.

Answer 1

I think the safest way is to set up a new SharePoint-Server in the new domain and migrate:

• install SQL-Server in new domain. Apply configuration from old SQL. Backup&Restore SharePoint and TFS-Databases.
• build a new farm with new service accounts. It is a good idea to install SharePoint on a separate server.
• create new service Applications (some you can use existing DBs if necessary)
• create new web applications
• deploy all the custom solutions and custom configuration (if any)
• mount the database to respected web application.
• migrate the user from old domain to new doamin with stsadm -o migrateuser .