Upgrade from Windows server 2008 R2 Standard to Windows Server 2012

Question

Greetings,

We have a windows server 2008 R2 Standard where we have scheduled regular backup using windows server backup. Today, I received a notification from Google drive saying that I need to upgrade my server in order to continue using 'Google drive for desktop' Check screenshot. I checked their website it says that windows server 2012 and above are supported. (https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375082?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop).
Now I need to upgrade my server to 2012. Please let me know how to do that. All the answers I read on Microsoft's website were too technical. Please answer in simple words a step-by-step guide and let me know if I can upgrade it myself or should I consult some IT person. Also let me know if it's possible to upgrade it without erasing all the data from server.

Google drive will stop supporting my server January 2023 onwards so a quick reply will be highly appreciated.

Warm Regards,
Abdullah Waseem

Answer 1

The roles installed are important. the simplest / safest / cleanest solution is to stand up the new one, patch fully, migrate roles over and move on. An in-place can be done by running setup.exe from the root of the 2012 install media.

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Answer 2

What I understood is that first of all I need to buy Serer 2012 CD

You might find it from a third-party supplier but be careful. You can only purchase the current version (Server 2022) from microsoft so make sure up front the reseller can provide a downgrade product key and also work out your access to installation media which microsoft does not provide. An in-place upgrade cannot be done using evaluation media.

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Answer 3

1. You have two possible options. A clen install and migration, or an in-place which seems to be what you asked about. In-place is riskier but attempts to upgrade the existing OS.
2. Installed roles can be determined from Server Manager (Add remove roles)

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Answer 4

You can check the roles installed via Server Manager. An in-place upgrade may be possible but is risky. Better option is to clean install and migrate. As already mentioned, an in-place can be done by running setup.exe from the root of the 2012 install media.

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Answer 5

These ones could help.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/remote/remote-desktop-services/migrate-rds-role-services
https://www.iis.net/downloads/community/2013/04/iis-easy-migration-tool-iemt
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/storage-migration-service/migrate-data

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