Upgrading from 2012r2 File Server to 2022

[AB_IT]

Hey All,

 

Just looking for an easier way to do this and as our file server is a VM I was thinking about creating a new VM Server and then just attaching the Virtual Hard Drives with things like our Shared Data on and then redirecting group policy to the new server.

 

Will this work and will all the folder permissions stay the same? I'd hope so but wasn't sure if these are saved in the OS rather than on the folder itself?

 

Secondly it also currently hosts RDS VHDX Profiles and I obviously don't want to break these, is it as simple as redirecting the RDS configuration to the new place and it'll just reuse those current profiles?

 

Thank you everyone

[Norphy]

This ought to work; permissions are stored in the file system

[LukeRowberry]

I’d snapshot it and give the in place upgrade a go first if it was me

[AB_IT]

This ought to work; permissions are stored in the file system

Thank you

 

I’d snapshot it and give the in place upgrade a go first if it was me

 

Can you do an in place upgrade from Server 2012r2 to Server 2022? I looked and everywhere basically said had to go to 2019 first but then I'll have to buy those licenses as well.

Edited October 24, 2023 by AB_IT

[jmak]

Wouldn't Server 22 come with downgrade rights? I.e. you can buy the licenses you need for your final configuration of Server 22 and user it to activate your midpoint of Server 19.

[AB_IT]

Wouldn't Server 22 come with downgrade rights? I.e. you can buy the licenses you need for your final configuration of Server 22 and user it to activate your midpoint of Server 19.

I'm not sure, is this how it works? If it is that'd make my life a lot easier. I read something about that you should avoid in-place upgrades though, have you had good experience with them before?

 

On the O365 VLSC where we buy the licenses from it doesn't give me the 2019 ISO either?

[jmak]

It's not part of my job role any more, but in place upgrade worked fine last time I did it and it's talked about regularly on here.

 

I found this link:

https://download.microsoft.com/download/3/D/4/3D42BDC2-6725-4B29-B75A-A5B04179958B/Licensing_brief_PLT_Downgrade_Rights.pdf

 

which is a couple of years old, but I don't think it's likely to change. When I've bought Server licenses in the past, I've only ever been able to buy a licence for the most recent version and it has always come with downgrade rights.

 

You should check with your reseller, because anything said on here doesn't have legal standing, but personally I wouldn't be slightly concerned about the licensing.

 

As per other posts, take a snapshot and then upgrade. Then you've always got a rollback option.

[chaplic]

This ought to work; permissions are stored in the file system

 

 

File Permissions are stored in the filesystem; shares are not so these need ported. There's a few caveats but the fear of in place upgrades is out-of-date in my opinion, it works really well.

[Julian]

If possible, an in place upgrade is the easiest option, as there is no need to reconfigure the sever, or reinstall any of the software. Obviously take a backup before starting the attempt. I would only suggest a clean build if the server has some old unused / outdated applications still on the server.

[AB_IT]

Amazing, I'll give an in-place upgrade a try and of course take a snapshot before doing so. This will save me tons of work.

 

Just one last thing, is it okay to just upgrade to 2019 and then straight after if all goes well upgrade to 2022?

 

Appreciate the help guys thank you all!!

[gaz350b]

Personally I would upgrade, apply latest cumulative update then apply 2022 upgrade.

[gaz350b]

Amazing, I'll give an in-place upgrade a try and of course take a snapshot before doing so. This will save me tons of work.

 

Just one last thing, is it okay to just upgrade to 2019 and then straight after if all goes well upgrade to 2022?

 

Appreciate the help guys thank you all!!

 

There are reasons why you might want to avoid upgrade path. If your hosts allow it you could make sure you are running gen2 hyperv (if it’s hyperv you are running). You can also make sure it’s configured for safe boot and credential guard, firewall is correctly implemented before migrating.

[Julian]

I would not bother with server 2019, but rather go straight to server 2022.

Server 2022, can be set to secure boot, and virtualisation-based security after an upgrade (you may have to upgrade your virtualisation platform first).

[PotNoodleTech]

The fact that they are VMs puts you in a strong position. I in place upgraded all my 2012 r2 servers - seemed to work fine and saved a lot of time.

 

Took a veeam backup, Took a snapshot, did the in place upgrade, tested, if successful removed the snapshot.

[psydii]

In place seems to have the majority vote

 

However to address your initial question regarding attaching the existing data disk to a new machine - as well as shares needing to be recreated, you also need to check to see if any local user/groups have been granted permissions on the volumes/shares you are migrating. It was once best practice to use local groups (i.e. stored in that server's SAM) to grant permissions to Universal/domain local groups. This is a problem in your scenario, as the local groups are lost when you connect the disk to another server. I seem to recall that using icacls is the way to update the groups/UUIDs to local equivalents. This is definitely more of a faff than just doing an in-place upgrade (if the server is clean and set up only as a file server). The presence of other roles or 3rd party services may complicate things)

Edited October 30, 2023 by psydii

[Net_Man]

All my VM's where on 2019 but I was forced into doing an in-place upgrade from 2012r2 up to 2019 on the VM host server over the half term.

It went relatively smoothly but it definitely broke hyper v along the way.

[Sephiroth]

As an alternative to the in-place upgrade, and possibly something to do as/when you are able, set up DFS. This means that you are pointing all of your users to a centrally managed share location that is then directed to the file server. That means that you can just spin up another server and use DFSR to migrate the data (or your file migration tool of choice) and add the server to the DFS share and remove the old one. No worrying about share paths/permissions or file permissions.

 

It also means that you can easily migrate outside of the virtual environment should you need to, as the clients are just directed to the DFS share path, not the specific server that holds their data.

[jtotheb]

This might come too late if you've already done it but Microsoft's Storage Migration Service will shift your data retaining the permissions, recreate the shares with the same permissions, rename the new and old server and even migrate the IP configuration to the new server so it slots in as a direct replacement. However, you will need an extra orchestrator machine that actually manages the migration between source and destination servers.

 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/storage-migration-service/overview

 

[ITGURU]

you can export the lanmanserver reg key to backup shares and share permissions. folders will keep their acls when you install new os version then reimport the reg file and they will be shared again.

[AB_IT]

Completed the in-place upgrade an it all seemed to just keep working Thanks all, surprised it went so smoothly *touches wood* saved me a lot of work!

[MatthewL]

We had multiple 2012 file servers, one bigger than the other that was causing us issues upgrading to 2016 so we detached the volumes for the storage, cloned it, upgraded that and reattached them and was back online after serveral failed upgrade attempts.

[MrForgetfull]

Do you use Deduplication on your existing file server? If so you'll need to remember to put it on again on the new server otherwise you/your users will have trouble with opening files that have been deduplicated.