I did a 2 server in-place upgrade from 2008 R2 to 2012 R2 a couple of months ago. First server, no issues. Second server, all hell broke loose. Took almost 2 hours to get the server back because the customer’s admin backed up DHCP to the C drive of that server instead of a shared location (that server had DHCP on it). Once we got the server back, I exported DHCP to a shared location and then installed 2012 R2 clean. I then installed DHCP, imported the config, and immediately setup DHCP Failover.
This was for a small school system and they just did not have the physical, virtual or storage resources to build two new DCs and go that route. That is why I hate doing in-place updates or upgrades. You just never know what is going to come and bite you in the rear. Webster From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jonathan Raper Sent: Friday, January 08, 2016 12:26 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [NTSysADM] In-place upgrade of a 2008 R2 DC to 2012 R2? 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
