Server Name and SQL Server Name

I have, in the past had the need to rename a server, either because the server has been named incorrectly or because it has been created as a clone from an image.  There is a documented process which I have used in the past to rename SQL Server once the server itself has been renamed.  The script which I use is below;

-- Get current servername

SELECT @@SERVERNAME;

-- Drop current servername

sp_dropserver 'ServerB\INST01';

GO

-- Add new servername

sp_addserver 'ServerA\INST01', LOCAL;

GO

-- Restart SQL Server services

-- Check the change

SELECT @@SERVERNAME;

NOTE - There are the usual precautions to take here, never do this on a production system, test the solution first and carry out regression on any applications which connect to SQL Server.

I have used this process with default instances on SQL Server 2005 and 2008 without any issues, this is mainly because the servers I have renamed where development / UAT / production servers that were still being built.  I have not however had to do this for a named instance.

Today I came across the need to again use this process but this time on a named instance and it came to light in a different way.  I was subscribing to a transactional publication on a server from ServerA\INST01 when I got the below error;

At first I thought it was because of the named instance so I created an alias of ServerA pointing to ServerA\INST01 but again got the same error.  Looking at the error more closely the server name was in fact ServerB\INST01.  I checked the server name in server manager and it was ServerA, I checked VMWare and the server name was ServerA???  Next I connected to ServerA\INST01 using SSMS and ran the below;

-- Get current servername

SELECT @@SERVERNAME;

The result was ServerB\INST01.

Following the process above allowed me to rename SQL Server and create my subscription, problem solved.

Enjoy!

Chris