How can I rename a server from the command line?

A. You can use the NetDom command, which is part of Support Tools, to add a new Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) to a server, make the new name the primary name, then remove the old name, as you see below. This functionality is useful when you can't just do a straight rename operation (in which case, you would use NetDom Renamecomputer). For example, you would use this tool with domain controllers (DCs), as follows:

netdom computername ORIGNAME /add:NEWNAME.domain.com”
netdom computername ORIGNAME /makeprimary:NEWNAME.domain.com”
netdom computername NEWNAME /remove:ORIGNAME.domain.com”
netdom computername NEWNAME /enumerate

The last command will list all the names for the server.