Host name changes in a Milestone Federated Architecture

Changes to the name of a computer that resides within a Milestone Federated Architecture setup will have the following implications, and this applies both when sites are connected inside work groups and across domains.

The host of the site is the root node in the architecture

If you change the name of the computer that the central site within the architecture is running on, all child nodes will be re-attached automatically to the new address. So in this case, a rename will not require any actions.

The host of the site is a child node in the architecture

To avoid connection issues when changing the name of a computer that one or more federated sites are running on, you must add an alternate address to the affected site, before the computer is renamed. The affected site being the node whose host computer will be renamed. For more information about connection issues due to unprepared or unpredicted host name changes and how to resolve the problems, see Issue: A parent node in a Milestone Federated Architecture setup cannot connect to a child node.

The alternate address must be added in the Properties pane in either the Site Navigation or the Federated Site Hierarchy pane. The following prerequisites must be met:

• The alternate address must be added to be available before the host computer is renamed

• The alternate address must reflect the future name of the host computer (when renamed)

See Set site properties for information about how to access the Properties pane.

To ensure the smoothest update possible, stop the Management Client on the node that serve as a parent node to the one whose host name will change. Otherwise, stop and restart the client after the computer has been renamed. For more information, see Start or stop the Management Server service.

Also, make sure the alternate address you provided is reflected in the Federated Site Hierarchy pane at your central site and if not, stop and restart the Management Client.

Once the host has been renamed, and you have restarted the computer, the federated site will automatically switch to the new address.