Getting rid of GUIDs in SharePoint 2010 database names
It is like your typical battle of good vs. evil. SharePoint 2010 has a secret plot to run the world out of GUIDs and between you and me I think it has a good shot of accomplishing its goal. Well, me and boy wonder (aka Todd) have seen the pain and suffering they are trying to evoke and we have plan to stop it. Creating blog posts to remove as many of the GUIDs as possible.
"But dynamic duo who cares if the world runs out of GUIDs?" Well, to be honest the people it scares the most are the poor developers. And while we generally consider developers second class citizens that doesn't mean we wish them harm. And let's face it, if they didn't have GUIDs they would have nothing to do. And we all know bored developers will wander the halls of your office building aimlessly. Or worse they will congregate in places like the break room and will want to make small talk with you when you go to get an afternoon Mt. Dew. I don't know about you, but nothing ruins my day worse than idle chit-chat with a developer. Yucky.
So this post is your one stop shopping for everything about getting rid of the GUIDs: As Todd or I post new items for removing GUIDs we will update this post.
How to get rid of the Central Admin database GUID by Todd
How to get rid of the SharePoint 2010 Search service application database GUIDs by Shane
How to clear timer job error after renaming the Search Admin database by Shane
Microsoft article on renaming databases (Be careful, it isn't perfect yet)
How to rename the PerformancePoint Database by Shane
Build your farm without getting GUIDs in the first place by Todd
As always remember to test any of these steps on a nonproduction server before attempting on your real servers.
Save the GUID!
Shane
SharePoint Consulting
PS - I don't hate developers. Really, it just seems that way.