Migrating to Windows server 2016/2019/2022

1. Join Windows Server 2022 to the Domain

2. Click manage in the top right-hand corner. Now Click add roles and features.

3. Click on Server Features as below and select ‘Active Directory Domain Services’

4. Go to confirmation and click ‘Install’

5. Once ADDS has finished installing, now click ‘Promote this server to a domain controller’.

6. Once ADDS has finished installing, now click ‘Promote this server to a domain controller’.

7. Now enter your Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM) Password.

8. Specify the domain controller that the new domain controller is going to be replicating from.

9. Now proceed to the prerequisites check. Once the prereqs check has passed, proceed and click Install.

10. Now open Windows PowerShell as administrator and running the following command to migration all roles across to the new domain controller. “Move-ADDirectoryServerOperationMasterRole -Identity “New domain controller computer name” –OperationMasterRole DomainNamingMaster,PDCEmulator,RIDMaster,SchemaMaster,InfrastructureMaster –Force

11. Now run ‘netdom query fsmo’ to confirm all roles have been moved to the new server.

12. Now update your DHCP server / devices with static addresses to use the new domain controller IP address as there DNS server.

Now decommission the old Windows Server 2012 / R2 Domain controller. (I usually recommend leaving this a week or so after the migration or powering it off to ensure everything is working as expected before decommissioning.)

1. Click Manage in the top right-hand corner in the server manager and click ‘remove roles and features.

2. Go to sever roles, select ‘Active Directory Domain Services’ and Click remove features.

3. Now Click ‘Demote this domain controller’

4. DO NOT SELECT FORCE THE REMOVAL OF THIS DOMAIN CONTROLLER. Now click next.

5. Select ‘Proceed with the removal’ and click Next

6. Leave remove DNS Delegation checked and enter in your Domain administrator credentials.

7. Now create the new local administrator account password for the server.

8. Now click demote to start the removal process.

9. You should now see the following if the removal has completed successfully.

10. Now go to Active Directory Users and Computers and click on the domain controllers OU, you should now only see the new domain controller.

11. Now raise the domain functional level. In Active Directory Users and Computers, right-click on the domain forest and click ‘raise domain functional level’.

12. Now click the dropdown and select ‘Windows server 2016’ as the functional level and then click raise.