OK, so now I have my isolated, cloned environment all set up. I have a parent-child configuration, 1 DC in each. All tests pass - dcdiag, replication, dnslint - all pass, or can be explained (i.e., the parent domain DNS forwarders can't reach the Internet, but that's by design). Forest/domain functional levels are Win2008 R2.
Since these are VMware VMs, I have a snapshot of all domain members, so that I can roll back and try again, in case something doesn't work. Yes, I will have to shut down all domain members and roll them all back at the same time, but there's only 5 machines in total, so it's manageable. So each domain now has a Win2012 R2 member server. Here's the plan: Apparently you don't *have* to run forestprep/adprep anymore, making a Win2012 R2 machine a DC will do that for you? Or should I do that manually (from the current Win2008 R2 DC) first? Forest and adprep from the paren, and just adprep from the child? I will install ADS on the parent Win2012 R2 machine. I will choose to promote it to a DC; become a DNS server; become a GC. I will wait a while for replication, then do the same on the child domain. Then eventually transfer all FSMO roles to the new Win2012 R2 DCs, and demote the existing Win2008 R2 DCs. It really should be as simple as that, shouldn't it? (presuming it all works, and the tests all pass afterwards) I am following this site: http://blogs.msmvps.com/mweber/2012/07/27/upgrading-an-active-directory-domain-from-windows-server-2008-or-windows-server-2008-r2-to-windows-server-2012/ Thanks for any pointers.
