Active Directory Domain Services 2008 : Manage Active Directory Domain Services Data - Rename a Group Object

9/26/2011 9:16:32 AM

Scenario/Problem: Your company has a group that was named incorrectly.

Solution: Rename the group by using the Windows interface or the command line.

To rename a group object by using the Windows interface, perform the following steps:

1.	Log on to a domain controller or a member computer that has Windows Server 2008 RSAT installed.
2.	Click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Users and Computers.
3.	In the details pane, right-click the group object you want to rename and click Rename.
4.	Type the new group name and press Enter.
5.	On the Rename Group page, shown in Figure 1, modify the applicable name fields, and click OK. Figure 1. The Rename Group Wizard.

To rename a group object by using the command line, perform the following steps:

1.	Log on to a domain controller.
2.	Click Start, and click Command Prompt. Note Renaming a group object by using the command line is a two phase process. The first step uses the dsmod command to modify the applicable name attributes for the object. The second step uses the dsmove command to modify the distinguished name of the object.
3.	In the Command Prompt window, type the following command and press Enter: Dsmod group "CN=ApplicationA Group,CN=Users,DC=WS08DOMAIN01,DC=LOCAL" -samid "ApplicationB Group" (where "CN=ApplicationA Group,CN=Users,DC=WS08DOMAIN01,DC=LOCAL" is the distinguished name of the group you want to rename and "ApplicationB Group" is the new name). Tip For a full list of dsmod group parameters, go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732423.aspx.
4.	Verify that the results of the dsmod command entered above returns dsmod succeeded, as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2. Modifying a group name using the command line.
5.	In the command Prompt window, type the following command and press Enter: Dsmove "CN=ApplicationA Group,CN=Users,DC=WS08DOMAIN01,DC=LOCAL" -newname "ApplicationB Group" (where “CN=ApplicationA Group,CN=Users,DC=WS08DOMAIN01,DC=LOCAL” is the distinguished name of the group and “ApplicationB Group” is the new group name).
6.	Verify that the results of the dsmove command entered above returns dsmove succeeded, as shown in Figure 3. Figure 3. Renaming a group using the command line.