(Updated: 1/6/2023)
Revised USGS Naming Standards were announced on December 2, 2021. Technical support guidance will be added to this page as a resource in support of the naming standards change.
PowerShell Rename Tool
The USGS SysAdmin Tools (USAT) PowerShell module has a Rename-UsgsComputer cmdlet that can be used to rename remote computers (to install USAT or learn more, see the Scripting and Automation page). Once you have USAT, you can run PowerShell as admin and run a command like this:
Rename-UsgsComputer -Name IGSWZDWBLT00001 -NewName IGSWZD281L00001
The tool will prompt for credentials for a low-privileged account (generally one in the local AD Joiners group), perform the rename, and reboot the computer if no users are logged in. After a reboot, Active Directory, Configuration Manager, and BigFix should all reflect the changed name within a day or so.
Note: If you get an ACCESS DENIED error, try running Grant-RenameComputer as recommended.
Things to Consider
- MECM
- There may be a collection that uses a WMI query based on name for membership. When provisioning a computer with the new naming convention it may not get added to the collection.
- You will have to update the query to include the new naming convention. In this example the query is looking for Windows laptops.
- where SMS_R_System.Name like “%wglt%” Becomes
- where SMS_R_System.Name like “%wglt%” or SMS_R_System.Name like “%IGSWWA430WL%”
- OR
- SMS_R_System.Name like “igs___430%” (Note: this uses the underscore “_” for single character wildcards in place of the building code)