There are lots of threads on this topic, but none seems to quite apply to me.
I've got a "new" 2008 R2 server "ready" to replace THE old 2003 server. The new one is already been promoted to a DC and seems to work, as far as I can tell. They are the only two DCs in the forest.
I need to "temporarily" do the migration, then reverse it. First, I need to preserve the IP and NAME because my network has VPNs running to foreign sites, and changing all those would take forever. Second, I need to temporarily assume the correct name/IP long enough to generate a license file for my main application (EMR) and they say it's name and IP dependent. I can't actually move the server on a permanent basis until I have the resulting license, which takes up to 24 hours to acquire from the vendor.
I thought I could simply disconnect the network from my new server, change the IP and name, run the license tool, then go back. I wouldn't allow me to change the name, maybe because it couldn't connect to the network?
Most of the articles I've found want you to have a "spare" DC that isn't getting changed. Since I don't have such a thing, how do I go about the swap, most importantly, in a reversible manner?
I'm not a real IT person - I have no training and although I once thought I was pretty smart, I'm not so sure anymore. There's not any qualified IT people within 100 miles, so I need to deal with this myself.
