Need a script to change the name of a computer

Cancerous · 03 Feb 2012

About to roll out a bunch of VM's onto a domain, but I need to know how to automate a computer name change based on a variable BEFORE it joins the domain.

I've got a cmd script in SetupComplete.cmd that goes to a website to get a hostname based on the computers IP.
So is there any way to automate a script to get the variable and assign it as the host name?

This is the script I use to get the hostname. It assigns the hostname to the variable VMHOST.

Code:

for /f "delims=" %a in ('c:\windows\system32\webfetch.exe websiteurl.php') do @set VMHOST=%a

WindowsStar · 03 Feb 2012

Where is the variable you need? or are you talking about VMHOST variable and using it?

Cancerous · 03 Feb 2012

Using the VMHOST variable.

WindowsStar · 03 Feb 2012

Cancerous said:

Using the VMHOST variable.

I am not sure if I know how to rename the machine from the command line. I would have to look that up. I can turn all of it into VBScript for you, unless you don't know VBScript and need to manage it???? Let me know. -WS

Cancerous · 03 Feb 2012

I'm sure I'll cope. I have a tiny little bit of coding experience, so if it's just changing some variables then it will be fine.
& I work in a software company so I'm sure one of the developers will know how to use vbscript.

WindowsStar · 04 Feb 2012

Here you go. I just modified your command line command. Please note: You can get into some major trouble if the name is longer than 15 characters. There is NO name checking here. Please test this on a machine that if it crashes you are ok with that. Let me know -WS

Code:

for /f "delims=" %a in ('c:\windows\system32\webfetch.exe websiteurl.php') do @wmic computersystem where name="%COMPUTERNAME%" call rename name=%a

Cancerous · 04 Feb 2012

Thanks.
I'll test it on Monday when I get back to work.

WindowsStar · 04 Feb 2012

Great, don't forget to let me know if it works or not. -WS

Cancerous · 05 Feb 2012

I get the "Unexpected switch at this level" error.

WindowsStar · 07 Feb 2012

Does the following give you the computer name?

Code:

for /f "delims=" %a in ('c:\windows\system32\webfetch.exe websiteurl.php') do @echo %a

If yes, on a test machine does this change the name?

Code:

wmic computersystem where name="%COMPUTERNAME%" call rename name=Test-PC

or

Code:

wmic computersystem where name="%COMPUTERNAME%" call rename name="Test-PC"