Renaming a Failover Clustering Instance of SQL Server

Can you rename the SQL virtual name in a Cluster? The answer for this in SQL Server 2005 is abviously Yes. New to SQL Server 2005 is the ability to rename a clustered instance of SQL Server without having to uninstall and reinstall it.

Follow these steps:

1. Start Cluster Administrator.
2. Select the resource group that has the SQL Server resources.
3. Take the SQL Server service offline.
4. Right-click the SQL Server Network Name resource, and select Properties; alternatively, double-click the resource.
5. Select the Parameters tab of the resource’s properties page
6. Enter the new name of the failover clustering resource and click Apply.
7. Select the General tab. Change the name of the resource to include the new name you configured
in step 6. Click OK.
8. Bring the SQL Server resources online.
9. Ping the new name of the SQL Server failover clustering instance. If the name cannot be
resolved, you will have to flush your DNS cache by issuing these three commands in succession:
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /registerdns
and nbtstat –RR.
10. Start SQL Server Management Studio, and connect with the new instance name. If this succeeds,
the change has been done successfully.
11. For a final verification, you can also run a SELECT @@SERVERNAME query, which should reflect the name change.

Note:
You can only rename the SQL Server virtual Name and not the instance name and this operation involves some down time.