upgradation of windows server 2012 standard domain controller and wsus server to newer version

Question

We have a small office of windows server active directory based setup. Primary domain controller is windows server 2012 standard 64 bit edition. Roles installed are only windows server update services (WSUS) active directory and dns. Backup domain controller is windows server 2016 installed on low configuration server. All client computers are windows 10 professional version. I have to upgrade my primary domain controller to latest windows server version. Which version should I go for Windows server 2022 or 2025 or windows 2019.

My primary domain controller server configuration is as below :- Model - IBM SYSTEM X 3300 M4 PROCESSOR - INTEL (R) XEON (R) CPU E5-2403 1.8 Ghz RAM - 16 GB 

I am planning to promote my backup domain controller to primary on temporary basis. After that I will do clean install windows server new version on my  IBM server and again make it a primary domain controller.  What about my current wsus service should I remove it and again reinstall it on new server? Please guide me how to perform this.

Can I do in-place upgrade to version, like Windows Server 2016 or 2019,2022, 2025 directly on the existing server hardware.

Kindly give your expert advice how to do this.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Do Server 2025, in-place as long as your existing server is issue/error free. (You may have to multi-upgrade from 2012 to 2019 then to 2025, but I would try straight to 2025 first)

https://www.ajtek.ca/wsus/another-successful-in-place-upgrade-why-not-change-how-you-think/

Note: to get the updates to AD in 2025, your AD Functional level (domain/forest) must be 2016 and then you must demote and re-promote the server after the in-place upgrade.

If you don't care about getting the new AD features, then an in-place upgrade is fine on it's own.

Before you even attempt an upgrade - ENSURE YOU HAVE A RESTORABLE BACKUP.

Answer 2

Hello,

Windows server 2012 can only be in-place upgraded to Server 2012R2 or Server 2016.It is not possible to upgrade directly to Server 2019,2022, 2025.

In this case, it is recommended that you upgrade to Server 2016.

More details you can refer to this link:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started/upgrade-overview

Have a nice day.

Best Regards,

Hania Lian

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Answer 3

Don't forget, "Supported" and "Works" are 2 different things. I can confirm because I just did it on a system for testing this for you. You can upgrade 2012 (Not R2) to 2019 and then 2019 to 2025. You can't go from 2012 to 2025, or 2022.