Migrate ADFS

Question

Migrate ADFS

Tilicho 6

We have a 2012 r2 ADFS farm with databases hosted on a backend SQL server. Many internal and third party applications are customized to use the environment so we will need to keep this around for some time.

However, I want to get rid of hosting the sql databases in the backend. So, thinking of migrating to a fresh set of 2022 servers with primary and secondary. My questions are:

Can I export the config of the current ADFS servers (with databases on backend sql server) and have it imported on the new primary/secondary farm?
In primary and secondary architecture, does the requests get served by primary only or do both the primary and secondary serve the requests?

Carlos Solís Salazar 18,376 Reputation points MVP

2022-07-12T00:21:53.807+00:00

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Hope this helps,
Carlos Solís Salazar

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Carlos Solís Salazar 18,376 Reputation points MVP

2022-07-12T00:21:53.807+00:00

Thank you for asking this question on the **Microsoft Q&A Platform. **

You have not received answers or comments to your question because it may be ambiguous or confusing.

I recommend you visit How to write a quality question and verify that your question meets some of the recommendations.

Hope this helps,
Carlos Solís Salazar

----------

NOTE: To answer you as quickly as possible, please mention me in your reply.

Answer 1

Pierre Audonnet - MSFT 10,206 Microsoft Employee Moderator

There is a way to do that.
You can create a backup of your AD FS 2012 R2 farm using this: AD FS Rapid Restore (scenario 3: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/identity/ad-fs/operations/ad-fs-rapid-restore-tool#scenarios)

Then restore it a chose WID.

Then you can do a regular upgrade (which consist of adding 2022 servers to your existing 2012 R2 farm).

Tilicho 6 Reputation points

2022-07-12T18:50:15.39+00:00

thank you. Not sure if I understand the process correctly. When you mention restore it choosing a WID, where will this be restored to? We have two adfs servers in farm. There are a couple of web application proxies. Each WAP has its local host dns set to point to a specific ADFS. With WID there's primary and secondary in play. So would we need to restore it to both the servers in the farm?

If a general overview/steps were outlined then I would feel a bit more confident in approaching it.

Or, are you suggesting that I backup the current then restore it to a new 2022 server using WID. Then later make that server join the 2012 r2 farm? Sounds like a stupid question but thought I would ask.
Tilicho 6 Reputation points

2022-07-12T20:09:55.527+00:00
@Pierre Audonnet - MSFT

Thank you. We have two WAP with each localhost file in it pointing to specific ADFS server. The SQL is hosted in alwayson. Going through documentation this is what I gather.

Move the database from alwaysOn to a standalone sql server since the article mentions the tool is not supported for databases hosted in alwaysOn.

Backup the adfs using the example below
Backup-ADFS -StorageType "FileSystem" -StoragePath "C:\Users\administrator\testExport\" -EncryptionPassword "password" -BackupComment "Clean Install of AD FS (FS)" -BackupDKM

Restore from this backup with WID option on a new 2012 R2 server. The tool will create adfs role if not already installed.

Restore-ADFS -StorageType "FileSystem" -StoragePath "C:\Users\administrator\testExport\" -DecryptionPassword "password" -DBConnectionString "WID"

Once the new server has ADFS restored, what will be process moving forward? There are two WAP behind load balancer. I am thinking both the localhost files of the WAP would then point to the new 2012 r2 adfs with WID while the two servers that were in service would be shutdown (or is there a better decommissioning approach to those)? Then introduce 2022 into the new restored 2012 r2?
Tilicho 6 Reputation points

2022-07-25T16:38:06.583+00:00

@Andy David - MVP @Siva-kumar-selvaraj

Any input would be appreciated.

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Migrate ADFS

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