SharePoint 2010 – fix changing computer name

If you have a SharePoint installation and for some reason you changed the name of the machine on which the SQLServer instance is running, SharePoint won’t be able to connect to the database server anymore. The reason is because SharePoint stores the computer name (netbios name) in many places in its configuration database.  In order to fix this issue, you must reconfigure SharePoint to let it know the new SQL Server location.

On my developer machine (Windows 7), I installed SharePoint as suggested by Microsoft for developer computers so this creates a separate instance for SharePoint on the local SQL Server.  It is not required to enter the instance name when you configure the server, only the computer name will be enough.

The following steps are based on Pinal Dave’s procedure he posted on his blog: http://www.sqlauthority.com. Great blog by the way, go take a look!

1- Start SharePoint 2010 Management Shell (Run as administrator)

2- Run the following command:

stsadm -o setconfigdb -databaseserver myComputer -farmuser myDomain\myUser -farmpassword myPassword

NOTE: This might take several minutes to complete.

3- Go into Internet Information Services Manager

4- Remove the SharePoint Central Administration v4 site. It will be re-created automatically later.

5- Run the SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard

6- Click Next > on the Welcome Screen.  NOTE: You might need to run the SharePoint Configuration Wizard twice if the removed administration site is not created the first time.

7- You’re done, you should now be able to connect to your SharePoint Central Administration website.

Next time you configure your SharePoint server, do it with database aliases instead of server names.