How To Rename Hyper-V Node in a Failover Cluster

Scenario:
You're going to rename a node in a Failover Cluster.
You're wondering if something bad is going to happen.

In theory, no.

Practically, you can find that when you want to re-add the node in the cluster after having renamed the host, Hyper-V tolds you that you are already part of a cluster.

Umh.


This is partially true. You've been part of a cluster, but now you've another name.

So in your mind may aroust the idea of evict the node.

Before proceedin with this step, read this article:
 
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/archive/2010/03/03/when-should-i-evict-a-cluster-node.aspx

Ok, you match the 4th point, so "evict" the node is contemplated.


After evicting the node, Hyper-V won't re-add  you as explained above.
Now Hyper-V tolds you that is not cleaned up.

OMG. And now?

Solution:

From an elevated privileged prompt, run:

cluster node /forcecleanup

If the command succeeds, you have a clean node that is possible to re-add in the cluster.


A better way to accomplish this step is:

1 - Move all the VMs, Cluster Disk and witness disk in the node you don't want rename (say NodeA).

2 - Evict the NodeB from Failover Cluster, then rename host NodeB in NodeBNew.

3 - Now you can re-add the Node, after reboot, without the /forcecleanup step.

Enjoy.