Hy,
some year ago, as a total newbie, I installed a server with a named instance. At that time I used a physical server, and moreover I probably thought that SQL 2005 was the last version name for SQL server, so I named my instance with something like"hpserver\sql2005"...
Today I have a virtualized system, and I need to migrate SQL2005 to SQL 2014 (or 2016) and I would like to "rename" that instance.
The matter is that in last years more and more programs both with ODBC and ADO.NET connect to my server, and it's impossible to change all this programs in short time to connect to a new server.
My answer so is: it is possible to install a new server, named for example "ALPHA", and find some way to "redirect" all requests for older server to newest? I made some test and my matter is not (obviously) computer name, that I can mask with DNS, but instance name...
Hoping someone can help to correct my youth errors...
thanks
Mauro