Although Server 2003 has been end of life and in mostly companies people already replaced with updated OS. Last year when i migrated my Servers to new 2012 i made check list and steps to perform all this process which is as under;
Pre-Migration
1)
Backup: Before
migration we must test backup in case of any issue facing during or after
migration. This backup must be tested in an isolated environment.
2)
Test AD Health: Health
test is another component which needs to be done before performing actual
migration. AD health can be checked via DCDIAG tool or AD Replication Tool.
During this test, DNS functionality will also be tested.
3)
AD Inventory: Other
thing to do before migration is need to document Forest and Domain
Architecture, FSMO Roles, GC, DNS, IIS, File Server, any GPO, local policy or
firewall settings.
4)
Identify Risks:
Identify (legacy) applications that have dependency to AD. Further needs to
ensure if those applications will work on new Operating System i.e 2012/2016 with
new FFL/DFL (2016).
5)
Identify DES enabled accounts: These accounts would not work because DES encryption for
Kerberos is disabled by default.
6)
Evaluate new features:
Default Domain and DC policy differences, Schema version is updated,
Powershell, Administrative Center, AD Recycle Bin, Hyper-V, FRS to DFSR,
Advance firewall etc.
First install Windows Server 2012 and configure as Domain Controller
of our current domain therefore all the FSMO Roles will be transferred to this
server. FSMO roles consists of Relative ID (RID) Master, PDC Emulator,
Infrastructure Master Role, Domain Naming Master role and Schema Master. Following
are the steps to transfer FSMO roles;
a)
Relative ID Master – after logging in to new
installed Server i.e Windows Server 2012/2016 with Domain Admin account open
Active Directory Users and Computers. Right click on domain name i.e abc.com
in left pane and click on Operations Masters from the menu. A new windows will
be appeared having three tabs; RID, PDC and Infrastructure. On each tab
displays the current Operations Master for that role. There is also a change
button to enable the role transfer.
b)
On the first tab i.e RID click change button, it
will prompt yes to transfer or no to cancel. We need to click on “Yes” to
transfer the role to the current server. A message window will be appeared for
successfully role transferred. Now we can see the current Server is the RID
Operations Master. Similarly repeat the above steps for other two role i.e PDC
Emulator and Infrastructure Master role to transfer the roles to our current
Server which Windows Server 2012/2016.
c)
After transferring the above three roles to our
current new installed Server the next step is to transfer remaining two roles
also. For this open Active Directory Domains and Trusts and from left pane
right click on Active Directory Domains and Trusts. Then click on Operations
Masters from the menu and Operations Masters dialog will be opened. This
windows is the same above we already worked on but here will transfer the
Domain Naming Master role. We will click
on change button to transfer the role to the current Server and click ok to
confirm.
d)
Now the last step of role transferring is Schema
Master. This is bit different from above roles transferring. We need to logon
to Windows Server 2003 SP2 Domain Controller by Admin Account. Click on run
dialog box and type regsvr32 schmmgmt.dll and click ok. Actually we need to open
MMC and add snap-in dialog i.e Active Directory Schema. In left pane of newly
opened MMC window right click on Active Directory Schema. Now click change
Domain Controller and specify the name of newly installed Operating System
Windows Server 2012/2016 and click ok. Right click the Operations Masters and
click change, confirm by clicking yes. Click ok on transfer of successful
message box. After this step All five FSMO roles will be transferred to newly
installed Server i.e Windows Server 2012/2016
After transferring roles we have to do Testing and monitoring will on newly
installed Domain Controller on Windows Server 2012/2016. After that our old Domain
Controller (Windows Server 2003) will be properly demoted by the same command dcpromo i.e Active Directory
Installation wizard.
