‘The directory service is busy’ error when renaming a domain computer

This one was a new one… and a bugger to track down! While renaming domain computers, several of the rename operations would encounter an error during the rename process of

The following error occurred attempting to rename the computer to [New Name]:
The directory service is busy.

Well, if you have SQLExpress or SQLServer installed, the error may be leading you down the wrong path. In our particular case, the error was a security error related to SQLExpress / SQLServer SPNs (Service Principal Name). Basically, the rename operation could not rename the SPNs.

How to identify a potential SPN issues

Open a CMD prompt as an administrator
enter the command:
setspn –L [Computer Name]
Check for *any* registered SPN which is in the format of
MSSQLSvc/[Computer Name]:[Instance Name]

In short, if you have *any* SPN which starts with MSSQLSvc, you will not be able to rename your computer!

How to fix SPN issues

For *each* identified SPN above, you must delete the SPN using the following command:
setspn –d [SPN Name] [ComputerName]
Important: You must use the full SPN name as identified via the setspn –L command. These will be in the format of MSSQLSvc/Computer.domain.tld:instance

That is it! You can now rename your computer!

16 thoughts on “‘The directory service is busy’ error when renaming a domain computer”

Marty October 18, 2015 at 11:51 pm

Your suggestion did not work for me. Is there something incorrect with my syntax? Thanks.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>setspn -d MSSQLSvc/IHBI-Z220-62682.qut.edu.au:QSRNVIVO10 IHBI-Z220-62682
Unknown parameter MSSQLSvc/IHBI-Z220-62682.qut.edu.au:QSRNVIVO10. Please check your usage.

ArmgaSys Post authorOctober 25, 2015 at 5:36 pm

Marty,

At first glance, it looks like you may have a space in the SPN name (I.E. the QSRNVIVO10 IHBI-Z220-62682 looks like there is a space between the 0 and the I).
If the name really does contain a space, put the entire name in quotes.

setspn -d “MSSQLSvc/IHBI-Z220-62682.qut.edu.au:QSRNVIVO10 IHBI-Z220-62682”

Matt December 10, 2015 at 12:12 pm

Thanks! Saved me a lot of time. I would have never figured this out.

James Campbell December 22, 2015 at 4:00 am

great stuff. Had to figure some of the syntax out myself, but great stuff. Thank You.

IT Guy February 17, 2016 at 3:58 pm

Live saver thank you!

Adam June 17, 2016 at 7:04 pm

Any idea *why* this happens and why this solution works? I have the same problem, but am having trouble finding a solution. Also, I’ve seen workstations with the SPN entry but can still be renamed. However, those particular machines had another entry that looked like “MSSQLSvc/[Computer Name]”.

Mike July 22, 2016 at 12:18 pm

This worked for me. Many thanks!

Nick Ng August 2, 2016 at 2:13 am

Thanks for the information as this worked with resolving my issues

Greg September 27, 2016 at 9:53 pm

Excellent! Worked for me. SQL was the issue.

yoyo December 1, 2016 at 2:34 am

Thanks buddy ! it worked for me !!

Fauzul January 2, 2017 at 7:44 am

Great tutorial! Finally found something that works concerning this issue. Now I don’t need to go and format the PC that I am working on.

sanad July 26, 2017 at 10:16 am

it gaves me this error

FindDomainForAccount: Call to DsGetDcNameWithAccountW failed with return value 0x00000525
Unable to locate account SQLEXPRESS

noted that im using windows server 2016 and AD 2012 r2

Tarvinder Singh December 28, 2017 at 11:47 am

great stuff. I found this error on an azure windows vm which didnt had sql installed. But still I got this error while I was simply trying to join the computer to domain.(domain join command Add-computer has NewName parameter also to specify during the domain join porcess.