Upgrading from Server Essentials 2012 R2 to 2019 Essentials

Question

Upgrading from 2012 server essentials to server essentials 2019 you have to first upgrade to essentials 2016. Do you have to buy a 2016 essentials license if you're are upgrading to essentials 2019? Can you use a 2016 evaluation license? Is there a way to bypass entering a 2016 license or does it offer a 30 day trial when license entry is left empty?

Answer 1

You cannot use evaluation media to perform an in-place upgrade. The much safer method is to stand up a new one and migrate over.

The two prerequisites to introducing the first 2019 or 2022 domain controller are that domain functional level needs to be 2008 or higher and older sysvol FRS replication needs to have been migrated to DFSR

I'd use dcdiag / repadmin tools to verify health correcting all errors found before starting any operations. Then stand up the new 2019 or 2022, patch it fully, license it, join existing domain, add active directory domain services, promote it also making it a GC (recommended), transfer FSMO roles over (optional), transfer pdc emulator role (optional), use dcdiag / repadmin tools to again verify health, when all is good you can decommission / demote old one.

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