Rename domain name, user profiles

Before I start the question, first let me tell you about our setup. We are running 1 forest, 1 root domain, 1 W2K DC, 1 W2K3 DC, a few member servers, Exchange 2000 and 2007 coexisting, and 200 Clients. This is our simple AD structure. Now what I want to do is to rename our current domain from companyR.com to companyR.local. Well I know I can do this by using RENDOM (rename) or ADMT (migration), right?

SO the actually actual question I need to ask here is if I rename my domain using RENDOM, will it impact in any way on my users' profiles? And the second thing I would like to know is will all my clients will get a new profile when they logon to the newdomain ?

If the answer is yes then are there any tools which I can use to easily reconfigure user profile, such as outlook? Please help .

Hello madon, first of all let me tell you that you will be able to rename the Domain only when you the FFL at 2003 level. But as per your posts I can see you have windows 2000 DC, so I don’t think it is possible to rename the domain.

I agree with you Elton. As per my experience renaming Domain is not supported in an Active Directory forest where you have Exchange 2000 Server deployed. As per your second question, I’m sure there will be no impact on your user profiles unless and until you are mapping them to the FQDN that will be renamed.

I also have a domain name to rename. I need to change the suffix to .lcl and mine is much simpler. I have a single win2003 domain controller, no exchange servers, and about 20 workstations.

I was unclear about the user profiles. After the domain rename is done, will i have to join each workstation to the new domain or will the domain controller tell the workstations the domain name has changed? I absolutely do not want to reconfigure 20 workstations. The profiles are not stored on the server.