"A domain rename operation is already in progress"

Date posted: 2014-11-26
Last updated: 2026-05-11

The other day, when I attempted to add a newly installed Active Directory to become the slave domain controller of a master, the error message "A domain rename operation is already in progress" was displayed. Promoting the Windows Server 2012 R2 server to a Domain Controller failed.

The other day, when I attempted to add a newly installed Active Directory to become the slave domain controller of a master, the error message "A domain rename operation is already in progress" was displayed. Promoting the Windows Server 2012 R2 server to a Domain Controller failed.

When promoting a Windows Server 2012 R2 to a Domain Controller failed…

I was sure I never attempted to rename the original domain…

Assuming a domain rename operation was in progress (why?!), I ended that operation with rendom:

C:\>rendom /end
 
The operation completed successfully.

After this operation, I could add my new slave domain controller. Jeej! 🙂

This post is part of my Active Directory guide.

I write these posts in my spare time, based on real problems from my day job as a sysadmin. If this one saved you some debugging time, a small donation is much appreciated. Thanks! 🙏

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