I've done the following upgrades of DCs before, in lab environments and on my home network:
2008 to 2008 R2 2008 R2 to 2012 2012 to 2012 R2 2008 R2 to 2012 R2 They've all (10 or 11 instances by now) worked without any real issues. I have at least one of the machines that has made the trek from 2008 to 2012-R2 by way of every interim upgrade. I've occasionally had some weird and minor issue long after the upgrade that I googled to resolve, and wondered if perchance, it was an artifact from the upgrade process, but I cannot confirm that, and all issues over time have been solved. (I've also had problems with systems that were not upgraded, so...) That said, I did it to be sure it could be done, so that in an emergency, I would be willing to go there. I have had zero such updates fail on me, but I'd always prefer a clean install if I could help it. It is tempting because it is very easy. Personally, the upgrade experiences of Microsoft operating systems has improved with every release, even if they still issue the same warnings. At the same time, it is very easy to stand up a new VM in a virtualized environment, so it is hardly worth the potential issues at some later point. My two current home DCs are: -- 2008 to 2008 R2 to 2012 R2 -- 2012 R2 When in doubt, stick to the path that will be more supported. In a production environment, I would make some effort to avoid the upgrade, even though I cannot point to any failures in my experience. *ASB **http://XeeMe.com/AndrewBaker* <http://xeeme.com/AndrewBaker> *Providing Virtual CIO Services (IT Operations & Information Security) for the SMB market…* * GPG: *1AF3 EEC3 7C3C E88E B0EF 4319 8F28 A483 A182 EF3A On Fri, Jan 8, 2016 at 2:26 PM, Jonathan Raper <[email protected]> wrote: > Happy New Year to the collective! > > > > I know this has been supported since at least 2008….and sounds like it has > improved with each iteration since. > > > > However, I am old school and have **never** been a fan of any kind of > in-place upgrade. Further…. > > > > The *very first sentence* in Microsoft’s TechNet article Upgrade Domain > Controllers to Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2012 > <https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh994618.aspx#BKMK_UpgradeWorkflow> > , updated less than a year ago: > > > > “The recommended way to upgrade a domain is to promote domain controllers > that run newer versions of Windows Server and demote older domain > controllers as needed. *That method is preferable to upgrading the > operating system of an existing domain controller*.” > > > > That being said, I’ve got an admin (junior to me) who seems to think it is > a good idea (because he wants to cut a corner). I and another peer (also a > senior engineer) disagree with him. > > > > Regardless, I’m curious if anyone here has tried this and if so what your > experience was? > > > > Thanks, > > > > Jonathan > > > > >
