Upgrading Azure AD Connect V1.6.16.0 > V2 - Swing Migration

[timbo343]

We have a VM which is only running Azure AD Connect 1.6.16.0 and Server 2012r2 - it was setup around Nov 2015.

 

I have been meaning to get Azure AD Connect upgraded to Version 2 and all may attempts at doing in-place upgrades have always failed.

 

It seems that version 2 will not install over 1.6.16.0 on a 2012r2 server and i cannot do a server upgrade from 2012r2 to 2019 as AAD fails once the server is upgraded and clearly states

 

Upgrading the server Operating System

If you need to upgrade the operating system of your Azure AD Connect server, do not use an in place upgrade of the OS. Instead, prepare a new server with the desired operating system and perform a swing migration.

 

So it seems like i'm going to have to fire up a new server for this and perform a "swing migration".

 

Has anyone performed a Swing Migration before?

 

There is a guide here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/hybrid/how-to-upgrade-previous-version#upgrading-the-server-operating-system but just wondering if anyone has actually done this before?

[3s-gtech]

I in-place upgraded the server which runs our AADC - I just reinstalled AADC once done with the same settings in place.

[timbo343]

Cheers! I cant remember if i tried that already but will give it another go.

 

Might have to give it a go.

 

So basically, in place upgrade the server with 1.6.16.0 installed then once it's upgraded just reinstall AADC v2 over the top of 1.6.16.0. There is no need to uninstall 1.6.16.0 at all.

 

It just feels like im a little stuck with the older version at the moment and have been for a couple of years. I spoke to MS about this years ago and they gave some feeble excuse.

[3s-gtech]

You *may* have to take 1.6 off once you've upgraded, before v2 will go on. I'm not sure if you can export the settings then re-import into v2, but worth a shot as it'll save time.

[caffrey]

Slight hijack so apologies

 

Anyone upgraded from an early version to a later version without a problem ? Server I've took over has version 1.3.21 on it and I want to upgrade to the latest (Or even v2). I've download some older versions so I can update in increments if needed.

Oh I'm doing this on a Azure VM with no backups too... (Not my doing)

[timbo343]

Slight hijack so apologies

 

Anyone upgraded from an early version to a later version without a problem ? Server I've took over has version 1.3.21 on it and I want to upgrade to the latest (Or even v2). I've download some older versions so I can update in increments if needed.

Oh I'm doing this on a Azure VM with no backups too... (Not my doing)

 

I think i jumped from an older version of v1 to the latest version of v1 without any issues (latest version is 1.6.16.0). The issue comes when moving from V1 to V2 due to the SQL database and V2 only running on Server 2016 and 2019.

[Davit2005]

Many years ago I migrated DirSync to AAD Connect on a new server and it was pretty painless, MS were also very helpful and from memory I think they had a specialist team. But then again I did speak to them regarding a phishing attempt that was hosted on MS forms and basically gave up frustrated.

[caffrey]

It's just a azure vm print server that uses local ad to authenticate the clients. I don't like the setup as there are lengthy delays releasing print jobs (Can take minutes) - I'm hoping that there maybe some speed improvements upgrading the AAD Connect

[timbo343]

So yesterday afternoon and last night i took the decision to upgrade the server from 2012r2 to 2019 as an inplace upgrade. The upgrade completed and i ran the Azure AD Connect V2 installer and got an error when trying to up date v1 which was already installed.

 

This error happens because the Azure Active Directory connector with identifier, b891884f-051e-4a83-95af-2544101c9083, does not exist in the current Azure AD Connect configuration. To verify this is the case, open a PowerShell window, run Cmdlet Get-ADSyncConnector -Identifier b891884f-051e-4a83-95af-2544101c9083. The PowerShell Cmdlet reports the error the specified MA could not be found.

 

The reason that this occurs is because the current Azure AD Connect configuration is not supported for upgrade.

 

If you want to install a newer version of Azure AD Connect: close the Azure AD Connect wizard, uninstall the existing Azure AD Connect, and perform a clean install of the newer Azure AD Connect.

 

Fortunately i had taken a backup of the settings from when server 2012r2 was running as shown in these articles > https://blog.expta.com/2021/07/how-to-migrate-aad-connect-to-new-server.html and Azure Ad Connect Export and Import – Mr T-Bone´s Blog.

 

I had to uninstall AADC version 1 from the newly upgraded 2019 server and reinstall AADC version 2. The articles mentioned in this post helped a lot along with this one > https://practical365.com/migrating-azure-ad-connect-new-server/.

 

The Azure AD Connect Health Sync services hadn't installed so i had to run Register-AzureADConnectHealthADDSAgent in powershell.

 

Next up was configuring AADC and making sure the Full Import, Full Sync Delta Import, Delta Syncs and Export jobs are running as expected. One thing that changed for me was the SOURCE ANCHOR which was initially set to objectGUID and now it's set to mS-DS-ConsistencyGuid. Something didn't seem right and the syncs weren't running smoothly but i was getting tired and stressed.

 

I eventually went to bed about 10:30pm and woke up at 4am with thoughts that it's not complete, feeling like i've failed, that i'm losing my technical ability to carry out simple things like AADC upgrades and just feeling very negative.

 

Once i got into work, i had to change the user account that i used for the Connect to Active Directory Forest section of AADC because the mS-DS-ConsistencyGuid attribute wouldn't update with a standard user - which when installing AADC askes you to use.

 

A Full Import and a full sync from the onprem domain pushed the settings over to Azure. I had to run Get-ADSyncScheduler to see what the configured sync settings were set as. The SyncCycleEnabled was set to false so this had to be set to true.

 

Password sync is working too.

 

So all in all AADC has now been upgrade to V2.

 

Thank you to those who posted on here.

[3s-gtech]

Thanks for your detailed upgrade experience. I never did get the Helath Agent working again, I might try again.