After installing Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials with a .local suffix, now I read that .local is a big no no... and need to change it from SERVER.MYDOMAIN.local to SERVER.MYDOMAIN.com.
Sarching high and low and Youtube, apparently it can be done, but a zillion steps to do a simple name change. Very risky indeed. And yes, way above my head, but did run across this:
in case of link-rot, here it is:
December 15, 2013 How to Specify Windows 2012R2 Essentials Top Level Domain (TLD) Suffix
Upon installing my first Windows 2012R2 Essentials server I discovered it would not let me use domain suffixes .net, .corp, .com, .org etc. It defaulted the DNS suffix to “.local”. I am not sure why Microsoft is saying this is a best practice since there are numerous complaints about integrating .local domain with cloud services, contention with multicast/Apple bonjour services and the major Certificate Authorities with will no longer release Certs for .local, .priv and .corp (see link)
To get around it this bug (see link) I refer to powershell again.
1.Enter the Powershell prompt.
2.To get the credentials to create your domain admin account enter the following: PS C:> $cred = Get-Credential –UserName LocalAdmin –Message “Please specify the password for your new administrator account.”
3.To start the domain controller promotion commandlet enter the following:
PS C:\> Start-WssConfigurationService -CompanyName “Contoso” -DNSName “Test.Contoso.com” -NetBiosName “Test” -ComputerName “YourServerName” –NewAdminCredential $cred -Setting All
And that’s it! I hope this helps.
Seems too good to be true right? Anyone know if this in fact works?
I'd like to change .local before I get way too far along with this basic small office server setup on about 5 devices. By the way, it's my office, I am not a IT pro doing this for others, it's a learning process for me, so please bear with me.
If this isn't a solution... any good ones that may help? I guess even starting completely over won't even give me the option to change it to .com correct? I do own a external .com domain name also. therefore the SERVER part of SERVER.MYDOMAIN.com versus www.MYDOMAIN.com.
I did find this also...something about a custom cfg.ini.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2830511
Will any of this work on R2 also? As I noticed some findings are for Windows Server 2012 Essentials (sans R2).
I think this is going to be a hard question to answer. :/
MORE USEFUL INFO. HOPE MY QUESTION HELPS PEOPLE!: http://www.em-soft.si/myblog/elvis/?p=403
I guess I would never had this problem if I just purchased the STANDARD edition and CALS for it.
HERE IS THE ANSWER!: Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials unable to install using .com, etc. domain suffix