How to Replace Windows 2008 R2 DC with Windows 2012 Standard x64?

[sglove]

Hi all

 

This is my first time posting in Windows Server forum.

 

I need advice and direction in replacing Windows 2008 R2 x64 bit with the new Windows 2012 Standard x64 bit.

 

I have googled around, and the closest I found was Replacing old DC 2003 with new DC 2008.

 

We used our current Windows 2008 R2 as the DC, DHCP, DNS, Active Directory and File Server. We intend to take down this 2008 completely and put this 2012 in place using the same IP and ServerName as the 2008.

 

As I am very new to Windows Server, can someone kindly give me advice on the steps and necessary precaution to take note?

[synaesthesia]

If this is a live environment in a school, I would be the first to ask "What on earth for?"

 

If it's a lab though/personal test, then you're probably going to find it easiest to do an in place upgrade. I know it's not recommended but if you have little in the way of services (i.e. just ADDS & related gubbins) then it won't cause any problems. The OS's are closely related enough for that not to be an issue.

 

 

Otherwise the procedure of migrating active directory, DHCP and DNS is no different from 2003 to 2012 with exception of the user interface.

[sglove]

This is a live environment in my office, and we have 30+ staffs.

 

If this is a live environment in a school, I would be the first to ask "What on earth for?"

 

If it's a lab though/personal test, then you're probably going to find it easiest to do an in place upgrade. I know it's not recommended but if you have little in the way of services (i.e. just ADDS & related gubbins) then it won't cause any problems. The OS's are closely related enough for that not to be an issue.

 

 

Otherwise the procedure of migrating active directory, DHCP and DNS is no different from 2003 to 2012 with exception of the user interface.

[robjduk]

interested in this too. Personally I plan on just upgrading after I promote the domain to 2012 level.

[sglove]

For upgrade, you can refer to this link,

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh994618.aspx

[localzuk]

It should be fairly simple to migrate. I'd start by adding the new server as an active directory server, and DNS server. Transfer all the roles over such as PDC emulation and being a time server. Then, transfer all your files onto the new server, and backup the share settings from the registry, restore into the new server's registry then restart the Server service.

 

Dhcp shouldn't be too hard, you should be able to export the settings, disable it, set it up and import the settings on the new server and start it up.

 

Your only issue will be all your network paths will point to the old server. So, I'd demote it and remove it from the network, and delete it's A record in DNS, replacing it with a CNAME pointing to your new server.

 

You should research each step individually though.

[ricki]

Hi i would wait for windows 2012 r2 which is due out very soon richard

[sglove]

Thank you localzuk.

 

Your words make me feel less burdened now.

 

I have a few questions to ask for your further advise.

 

(1) As we have only 1 DC in the whole office, is there a need to set up a PDC emulation?

 

(2) If i demote the server 2008 dc to a normal server, can I keep it in the network? The reason is, the size of the files is about 1.4TB and it will take more than a day to transfer over, so I have decided to keep it there as an archive in the network.

 

(3) What is this "share settings from the registry" you are referring to?

 

(4) For the current 2008, we used the DNS forwarder to points to our ISP DNS. We did not use it for anything else. Is there still a need to re-map all the network drives in all the users PC?

 

Thank you for your time.

 

It should be fairly simple to migrate. I'd start by adding the new server as an active directory server, and DNS server. Transfer all the roles over such as PDC emulation and being a time server. Then, transfer all your files onto the new server, and backup the share settings from the registry, restore into the new server's registry then restart the Server service.

 

Dhcp shouldn't be too hard, you should be able to export the settings, disable it, set it up and import the settings on the new server and start it up.

 

Your only issue will be all your network paths will point to the old server. So, I'd demote it and remove it from the network, and delete it's A record in DNS, replacing it with a CNAME pointing to your new server.

 

You should research each step individually though.

[localzuk]

1) Yes, the PDC emulator is the server that handles time sync across the enterprise.

2) You can, yes. When everything is moved over you can do the DNS change and everything should start looking at the new server. (You want to shut down that server once you've done the DNS stuff though, as some machines will still use the old one unless they can't access it and they do a DNS cache flush).

3) Saving and restoring existing Windows shares

4) You do use DNS for other things - all your internal computers use it to relate to each other. Without it, Active Directory wouldn't work correctly.

[sglove]

Once again, thank you localzuk.

 

After reading the Saving and Restoring Existing Windows Shares, it became clearer for me that this step is what I do not even know it exists that I must do. Thank you so much.

 

I did googled and also stumbled this thread, Backup and Restore Shares and Permissions on windows server - Spiceworks for the Saving and Restoring Existing Windows Shares. I also have stumbled across other irrelevant topics too.

As such, can I ask for your help to point me to a link that helps me to achieve the objective in your point 4 above?

 

 

1) Yes, the PDC emulator is the server that handles time sync across the enterprise.

2) You can, yes. When everything is moved over you can do the DNS change and everything should start looking at the new server. (You want to shut down that server once you've done the DNS stuff though, as some machines will still use the old one unless they can't access it and they do a DNS cache flush).

3) Saving and restoring existing Windows shares

4) You do use DNS for other things - all your internal computers use it to relate to each other. Without it, Active Directory wouldn't work correctly.

Edited June 30, 2013 by sglove

[localzuk]

If you add the CNAME record I mentioned, there's no need to remap - they'll all point at the new server using the old server name.

 

Your network will be using DNS internally, eg if your server is Server1 the clients will be using DNS to resolve that to 192.168.0.10 or whatever.

[sglove]

Ok.

 

 

(1A) By changing CName, my users will be able to put the new files or edit current files from the new 2012 server right? Even if the old server is still in the network (but demoted already).

 

 

(1B) I did some googling for the CName, and went into this guide,

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff625726(v=ws.10).aspx

Is this referring to what you recommended me to do?

 

(2) I did some reading up on Step-by-Step Guide for Setting Up Windows Server 2012 Domain Controller - TechNet Articles - United States (English) - TechNet Wiki, why is this guide showing FFL, DFL as Windows 2008 R2 and not 2012 (even though the guide is for 2012 server)

Edited June 30, 2013 by sglove

[robjduk]

Would you all think its fine to upgrade 2 DC's to 2012 from 2008R2 as just an upgrade 1 after another? I have never upgraded a DC before and after the domain and forest prep it seems fairly straight forward. A guide I see makes it seem quite straight forward but a couple of the guides I see include adding a 3rd, temporary DC to the mix and then demoting it afterwards but I would just rather upgrade the 2 in place servers. I assume the 3rd is to keep replication up during the process in a production environment but with the summer holidays coming up I can afford to have 1 DC out of action for a hour or so. Just ran a test lab with a new DC and it went well and plan on running a test on a sandboxed DC from my network when I get back to work.

Also just trying to figure my backup strategy. If I take a backup (I use Veeam but will also take a VMware snapshot), and things do go wrong, is it ok to take the upgraded one offline then restore the snapshot? I understand it that although not preferred, replication should sort its self out and it will be ok. Would love to hear from an experienced head please.

[Boredguy]

We did a test upgrading a freshly installed 2008 R2 DC to Windows 2012, and it appeared to work smoothly enough.

 

We've not tried it on our live network yet, mainly as I want to ensure that non of the old legacy 2003 services are still running that could break it (which I hope is remote since our DC's were all freshly joined the to domain last summer but ya never know!)