In place upgrade DC from 2012r2 to 2019 - Do I need to upgrade Schema first?

[TwistedHelixis]

Hi all. Just about to test an in place upgrade for a domain controller, from 2012R2 to 2019.

 

Just read a post that said I should upgrade the Schema first, but I though the upgrade took care of everything now.

 

Apart from backups, anything else I should consider or do before starting the upgrade?

[timbo343]

Are you using DFSR for your SYSVOL replication folders? If not, you will have to migrate to that but you will a warning when you install 2019. http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-server-2019/208671-server2019-ad-upgrade-frs-dfs.html

[TwistedHelixis]

Are you using DFSR for your SYSVOL replication folders?

 

Yes, if that is the 2008 thing that needed to be upgraded way back.

[3s-gtech]

It came in back in Server 2008 but wasn’t removed until Server 2019, so worth double checking.

[TwistedHelixis]

The DC is on DFSR :0)

 

Do you know if I need to upgrade the schema first? Does it matter if I do it anyway as a precaution?

 

Most of the step by step sites don't mention upgrading the schema first, but a couple do, so wanted to check what others have actually done.

[3s-gtech]

I haven’t done it the old fashioned way (pre-install the updated schema from the installer) for years now, but my DCs are 2012 R2 so not tried it with 2019 yet, sorry.

[TwistedHelixis]

I haven’t done it the old fashioned way (pre-install the updated schema from the installer) for years now, but my DCs are 2012 R2 so not tried it with 2019 yet, sorry.

 

Its OK just worked it out. I tried to do an in-place update without updating the schema and it will not install the update. I got an error message saying I needed to update schema first.

 

Just run adprep and the in-place upgrade is now installing (on test DC)

[TwistedHelixis]

The upgrade has completed without any issues. Not had time to check everything, but AD, DHCP & DNS seem to be OK

[TwistedHelixis]

Just in case anybody else get this issue....

 

The only issue I had doing the in place migration was with the Windows updates that I tried to run at the very end. Basically after the updates had downloaded and installed, clicking the reboot button just gave an error 0x80070005. Managed to workout that Windows had enabled its own threat protection systems, once I had disabled real-time protection the update installed as expected and I could reboot the server.

Edited May 11, 2020 by TwistedHelixis