To perform the below steps, you will
need to use a domain account which is member
member of Domain Admins and Enterprise Admins Groups and
member of the Schema Admins group. I will be using the
domain Administrator account which is already a member
of all these groups.

Migrating your Domain Controller
from Windows Server 2008 to Windows Server 2012
undergoes a few major steps, which are discussed in
details below :
Step 1 : Check Forest and
Domain Functional Level
-
The Forest Functional level
and Domain Functional Level must be
at least Windows Server 2003
-
To Check The Functional Levels,
read my article :
How to Raise the
Forest and Domain Functional Levels in Windows
Server 2008/R2
Step 2 : Preparing Active
Directory Schema
The schema has to be upgraded and
prepared for Windows Server 2012. To do this you have to
run the adprep command.
-
Insert the Windows Server 2012
/R2 DVD into the DVD drive of the Windows Server
2008 / R2 Domain Controller
-
Open command prompt in
administrative mode, and type adprep /forestprep and press enter.

-
Open the Directory of the DVD
drive and navigate to adprep directory and then type
: adprep /forestprep

You will receive a warning that all active directory
domain controllers in the forest must be running at
least windows server 2003. click c
and Enter to confirm and continue.

Adprep will successfully update the forest

-
Then type adprep /domainprep
and press enter


Step 3 : Install Windows
Server 2012 and join it to the Windows Server 2008 Domain
-
For Installing
Windows Server 2012, read this article :
How To Install
Windows Server 2012
-
For Joining Windows
Server 2012 to the domain of Windows
Server 2008, read this article :
How To Join
Windows Server 2012 to a Domain
Step
4 :
By now you already
have your Windows Server 2008 Domain Controller, and you
have installed Windows Server 2012 and is now a domain
member. Now we need to introduce our first Windows
Server 2012 domain controller in our network. This has been discussed in a
previous article, read it here :
Setting Up Additional
Active Directory Domain Controller With Windows
Server 2012
Step 5 : Transferring the
Flexible Single Master Operations (FSMO) Role
You have your Windows Server 2008
Domain Controller ( in my lab its called : ELMAJDAL-DC )
and have an additional Windows Server 2012 domain
controller ( in my lab its called : ELMAJDAL-DC13). To
complete the migration , we need to transfer 5 FSMO
roles to the new domain controller.
The five FSMO roles are:
-
Schema Master
-
Domain Naming Master
-
Infrastructure
Master
-
Relative ID (RID)
Master
-
PDC Emulator
To check who is currently holding
FSMO, run the following command : netdom query
fsmo

The FSMO roles are currently with the Windows
Server 2008 R2 domain controller : ELMAJDAL-DC
The FSMO roles are going to be
transferred, using the following three MMC snap-ins :
-
Active Directory
Schema snap-in : Will be used to
transfer the Schema Master role
-
Active Directory
Domains and Trusts snap-in : Will be
used to transfer the Domain Naming
Master role
-
Active Directory
Users and Computers snap-in : Will be
used to transfer the RID Master, PDC
Emulator, and Infrastructure Master
roles
Lets start transferring the FSMO
roles.
You have to register schmmgmt.dll in
order to be able to use the Active Directory Schema
snap-in
-
Open Command Prompt
in administrative mode and type regsvr32
schmmgmt.dll

-
Open Microsoft
Management Console , mmc

-
Click File > then click
Add/Remove Snap-in...

-
From the left side, under
Available Snap-ins, click on
Active Directory Schema,
then click Add > and
then click OK

-
Right click Active Directory
Schema, then click
Change Active Directory Domain
Controller...

-
From the listed Domain Controllers,
click on the domain controller that you
want to be the schema master role holder
and then click on OK

You will receive a message box stating
that the schema snap-in is not connected
to a schema operations master. That is
for sure, as we have not yet set this
Windows Server 2012 domain controller as
a Schema Master role holder. This will
be done in the next step. Click
OK

-
In the console tree, right click
Active Directory Schema [DomainController.DomainName],
and then click Operations
Master...

-
On the Change Schema Master
page, the current schema master
role holder will be displayed ( ex.
ELMAJDAL-DC.ELMAJDAL.COM) and the
targeted schema holder as well (ex.
ELMAJDAL-DC13.ELMAJDAL.COM). Once you
click Change, the
schema master holder will become
ELMAJDAL-DC13.ELMAJDAL.COM ,
click Change

Click Yes to confirm
the role transfer

The role will be transferred and a
confirmation message will be displayed.
Click OK

Then click Close, as
you can see in the below snapshot, the
current schema master is
ELMAJDAL-DC13.ELMAJDAL.COM which is the
Windows Server 2012 DC

-
From the Start
Screen, open the Active
Directory Domains and Trusts

-
Right click Active Directory
Domains and Trusts, then click
Change Active Directory Domain
Controller...

-
From the listed Domain Controllers,
click on the domain controller that you
want to be the Domain Naming master role
holder and then click on OK

-
Right click Active Directory
Domains and Trusts, then click
Operations Master...

-
On the Operations Master page, we are
going to change the Domain Naming role
holder from
ELMAJDAL-DC.ELMAJDAL.COM to
ELMAJDAL-DC13.ELMAJDAL.COM,
Click Change

Click YES to confirm
the transfer of the Domain Naming role.
The role will be transferred and a
confirmation message will be displayed.
Click OK , then
click Close

-
From the Start
Screen, open the Active Directory Users
and Computers console

-
Right click your
domain and select Operations Masters

-
In the Operations Masters
window, ensure the RID tab is selected.

Click the Change button. Select
Yes when asked about
transferring the operations master role. Once the operations master role
has successfully transferred, click OK to continue.
-
Ensure the Operations Master box
now shows your new Windows Server 2012

-
Repeat steps 4 to 6 for the PDC
and Infrastructure tabs.
 |
>> |
 |
 |
>> |
 |
Once completed, click Close to
close the Operations Masters window.
If you would like to
check if the roles were properly transferred, open
command prompt and type: netdom query fsmo.
If you see your new server listed in each role, you have
successfully transferred all of your FSMO roles to the
new server

Related
Articles
How To Join
Windows Server 2012 to a Domain
How to Raise the
Forest and Domain Functional Levels in Windows
Server 2008/R2
Setting Up Additional
Active Directory Domain Controller With Windows
Server 2012
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