Domain Name Change

UCS - Univention Corporate Server
#1

WARNING, NOT TESTED - ATTEMPT AT YOUR OWN RISK

I asked ChatGPT:

Is it possible to change the domain name of a Univention Corporate Server domain and automatically have all windows hosts update that information?

This was the result:

Yes, it is possible to change the domain name of a Univention Corporate Server (UCS) domain and automatically have all Windows hosts update that information.

To change the domain name, you can use the univention-config-registry command on the UCS domain controller to set the new domain name:

bash

univention-config-registry set ucs/server/samba/domainname=newdomain.com

After setting the new domain name, you can then use the ucr commit command to apply the changes:

bash

ucr commit /etc/samba/smb.conf

To automatically update the domain name on all Windows hosts, you can use the Group Policy Object (GPO) feature in Active Directory to push the new domain name to all domain-joined Windows computers.

Here are the steps to configure a GPO to update the domain name:

  1. Open the Group Policy Management console on a domain controller.
  2. Create a new GPO or edit an existing one.
  3. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options.
  4. Locate the “Domain member: Rename” policy and enable it.
  5. Enter the new domain name in the “New name” field and click OK.
  6. Close the Group Policy Management console.

After configuring the GPO, all domain-joined Windows hosts will automatically update their domain name the next time they refresh their Group Policy settings.

I don’t currently have a test environment setup to try out something like this. Would this be a valid method or would it break everything?

#2

Hi @maxTim,

We have already had a lot of fun here internally by asking ChatGPT questions about UCS. This usually results in completely absurd answers that unfortunately sound plausible at first glance.

If I haven’t overlooked anything, the UCR variable ucs/server/samba/domainname doesn’t exist in UCS, so this shouldn’t work.

For now I would say: do not trust ChatGPT.

Greetings

Sönke

1 Like
#3

Thank you.

Even though that solution would not work, it would be awesome if there was a tool that would allow us to change the domain name from, for example, home.local to newhome.intranet without having to rejoin Windows clients. In my particular case, I have several Windows clients. Reinstalling UCS with a new domain would be a giant headache.

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