Microsoft 365 SharePoint Tenant Renaming

SharePoint tenant renaming may seem like a small detail, but it can significantly impact your organization, particularly if you have a large user base and complex workflows. In this article, we’ll explore why you might want to rename your SharePoint site and the steps involved in planning and executing a successful rename.

Why Would You Want to Rename Your SharePoint Site?

If you’re thinking about renaming your SharePoint tenant, it’s essential to understand the reasons behind this decision. Here are a few possible reasons why you might want to rename your SharePoint URLs:

• Mergers and Acquisitions: If your organization has recently undergone a merger or acquisition, you should rebrand your SharePoint URLs to reflect the new company name.
• Divestitures: If your organization sells off a portion of its business, you may want to rename your SharePoint URLs to reflect the new company name and avoid confusion.
• Rebranding: If your organization undergoes a rebranding effort or changes names, you may want to rename your SharePoint URLs to reflect the new brand and maintain consistency across all your online properties.

SharePoint Tenant Renaming in Microsoft 365 Planning

SharePoint tenant renaming in Microsoft 365 can significantly impact your environment and business processes. Planning and assessing the critical areas identified by Microsoft against your existing environment is essential before proceeding with a tenant rename. Here are some important considerations to keep in mind:

Assess critical areas identified by Microsoft against the customer’s existing environment

Microsoft has identified several key areas to assess before renaming SharePoint tenants. These include:

• Custom solutions and add-ins: Custom solutions and add-ins that rely on the current tenant name or URL need to be updated after the rename. Be sure to identify any custom solutions or add-ins that may be affected and plan for updates accordingly.
• External sharing: External sharing settings may be affected by a tenant rename. Review and update external sharing settings after the rename to ensure external users can access your SharePoint sites and content.
• Tenant configuration: Tenant-wide configuration settings, such as Office 365 Groups and Microsoft Teams settings, may be affected by a tenant rename. Review and update these settings after the rename to ensure they continue functioning correctly.

Define and review the plan to move forward with a tenant rename

Once you have assessed the critical areas identified by Microsoft, it is essential to define and review the plan to move forward with a tenant rename. Here are some critical steps to keep in mind:

Identify high/medium/low impacts on the current environment: Before proceeding with a tenant rename, it is essential to identify the potential impact on your environment and business processes. Here are some examples of high-impact issues to consider:

• Webparts that rely on absolute URLs will cease to work until manually updated.
• Hub sites will need to be unregistered and reregistered after the rename
• Power automated flows will need to be recreated. A full list of impacts can be found here

Third-party solutions that rely on the current SharePoint tenant name may need reconfiguring

When planning a Microsoft 365 migration, it is essential to consider third-party solutions that may rely on the current SharePoint tenant name. Such solutions may need to be reconfigured to accommodate the new tenant name. Here are some key points to consider:

• Identify third-party solutions: List all solutions integrated with your SharePoint environment and identify which ones rely on the current tenant name.
• Reconfiguration plan: Create a plan to reconfigure the third-party solutions that require it. Determine how long each solution will take to reconfigure and the resources required.
• Test reconfigured solutions: Once the reconfiguration is complete, test each solution to ensure it works as expected.
• Update documentation: Ensure that all documentation and training materials are updated to reflect the changes made to the third-party solutions.

How to Perform Microsoft 365 Tenant Rebranding

The process for renaming a SharePoint tenant involves the following steps:

• Add your new domain name: Before renaming your SharePoint tenant, you must add your new domain name to your Microsoft 365 tenant.
• Use PowerShell to rename your domain: Once your new domain name has been added, you will need to use PowerShell to rename your SharePoint tenant. This process can take several hours to several days, depending on the number of users and sites in your SharePoint instance. Microsoft’s guidance on using PowerShell for Renaming SharePoint Tenants can be found here.
• Review settings and features after the rename: After the SharePoint tenant rename is complete, reviewing your settings and features is essential to ensure everything works as expected.

Things to Know

There are a few things to keep in mind when performing a SharePoint tenant rename:

• The SharePoint tenant rename is only available for organizations with fewer than 10,000 total SharePoint sites and OneDrive accounts combined.
• The SharePoint tenant rename does not affect email.
• The SharePoint tenant rename is not available in GCC or GCC High.
• The SharePoint tenant rename is supported only once per tenant by default and may require Microsoft Support approval to execute again. If Microsoft Support disapproves the rename, a SharePoint Migration may be required.
• The rename can take hours or days, depending on your SharePoint instance’s number of users and sites**—plan to perform the rename during slow or off hours.**

SharePoint Tenant Renaming Plan With AgileIT

Renaming your Sharepoint and OneDrive tenant names is more than a simple technical process. It requires careful discovery and planning to avoid business impacts and lost data. At Agile IT, we have extensive experience performing SharePoint tenant renaming with minimal impact and downtime.

Our process carefully considers your environment and business processes to ensure a successful rename. If you would like to learn more about how tenant renames can fit into your mergers and acquisitions strategy, or if you want to find out if your environment is suitable for a tenant to rename, contact us today.