How do you clone a sharepoint 2010 front end server and then add the clone to the farm?

We have a SharePoint 2010 farm with one front-end server. This server is a VMWare virtual machine. Let's call it SERVER1.

We want to add a new front-end server to this SP farm to enable load balancing. We have already cloned SERVER1 (named it SERVER2).

The problem is that this clone already "thinks" is it part of the farm since the only thing that has really changed is the host/computer name. When we run the farm configuration wizard, it does not give us a chance to "add server to existing farm".

What can we do to SERVER2 so that it thinks it is not part of the farm and could be added to the farm?

Seth

Solution 1:

You shouldn't add new servers to the farm like this. It has attributes tied to Server1 in the database and uninstalling it will cause problems for the real Server1. You should roll out a new server without SP installed and install SP on it from scratch. It will automatically copy all of the necessary files from the other front-end servers that it needs and you'll be up in no time.

If you're worried about scaling out, you can always script the installation of SharePoint for future servers. It's not very difficult.

Solution 2:

1. Disconnect or unplug your network from the new box.
2. Run the setup program and disconnect it from the old farm.
3. Reconnect it to the network
4. Run the setup wizard to add the new box to the farm.

Note: If you cloned the box, too, you may have other domain issues if you're on a domain.