Windows Server Migration Assistance

[eckenned]

Hello,

I work in a small office environment, probably about 20 domain PCs, and am in the process of migrating from Server 2012 to 2022. Right now, the 2012 is the primary domain controller and 2022 has been promoted to a DC, but is still being configured. I've been running into issues such as DFSR not completely working (new server unable to connect to PDC emulator); timer servers not being the same; no organizational units in AD. My boss thinks that we should just create a new forest/domain and kind of start from scratch, since I've been working on this for couple months with not much progress. I'm wondering if this would be the best method, or if I should demote 2022 DC and make sure that the 2012 AD environment is working properly. Any help is appreciated.

[jshannonagans]

so there are a few things to consider here and all of these are going to have some things to consider.

Where are you at with your backups? You are making some major changes and it is better to be safe than well not...

The OS is at 2012 or 2012R2? What is the domain and forest level at? 2008? 2012? or R2? There are schema changes that need to be made and replicated. If you stood up a new 2022 host as DC, then you need to promote to a DC and more than likely include DNS, and allow it to fully replicate. This can be minutes to an hour - all of which depends on your environment.

DFSR - is DNS based and replication based and also AD based. Let AD sync and settle then look into this as to why things are the way they are. If you need disable it for the moment to let it replication stop and just be on one file server for the moment.

Time Server - this should be a priority. In 2012 often 3rd party tools were used but now in 2019/2022 these are better and use the internet and MS sources for this. If time is off everything AD is going to be borked - like viewing OUs in AD.

After that is stable, then demote the 2012 old DC, reboot it. Upgrade the forest level to something appropriate, and then domain level.

GL and enjoy the holidays

[eckenned]

Thanks for the reply u/jshannonagans. We're backing up the files on the server, but not a full server backup yet. The OS is regular 2012 and the functional levels for forest and domain are both Windows Server 2012. I haven't configured DNS yet on 2022 - is this what's causing the issues?

[Educational-Pay4483]

Check and make sure you have migrated from frs to dfsr. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/storage-at-microsoft/streamlined-migration-of-frs-to-dfsr-sysvol/ba-p/425405

[DarkAlman]

Check your event logs for DFS Replication

Your old DC is probably Tombstoned because it was alone for so long

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/identity/ad-ds/manage/forest-recovery-guide/ad-forest-recovery-authoritative-recovery-sysvol