Restoring VM and changing computer name in OS

Question

I've restored a VM backup to a new VM using Recovery Services Vault. I restored it to an isolated vNet so that the computer wouldn't hijack the DNS entry. However, now I'm unable to RDP into the box. I'm attempting to change the ip config and computer name in the os (Windows Server 2016) via "Run Command" blade so that I can move it to a vNet that is on the domain. However, the powershell command "Rename-Computer -NewName "restoredvm" -Force" is failing with a message that it can't reach the domain.

Seems like I'm making this overly complicated. Is there a better way to restore a VM to a new VM instance and change the ipconfig/computer name at the same time so that the restored VM doesn't hijack the DNS entry from the original VM? I'm doing this to test disaster recovery.

Answer 1

Related to the RDP issue:
The restore of the VM was finished successfully?
The restored VM is up and running?
Is there a NSG associated to the isolated vNet/Subnet or/and the restored VM? If "yes" there is an "allow rule for RDP TCP Port"?
Is a public IP associated with the VM?

Regarding the renaming issue:
It looks like a domain-joined computer can be renamed with Rename-Computer if a DC is available.
To run your backup tests it would be helpful to have a restored AD in the isolated vNet/subnet as well.

There was a similar question a few days ago:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/228266/how-to-restore-azure-vm-in-offline-mode.html

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(If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

Regards
Andreas Baumgarten

Answer 2

I have posted an article in my blog with a different way of achieving the requirement
quickly-clone-a-vm-in-azure