Forum Discussion
Microsoft Recommendation on Upgrade Path from 2012R2 to 2022?
- Did a in-place upgrade from 2012 R2 to 2019 just last week for two servers, no issues.. It just depends on the installed software/drivers/anti-virus etc if it will work. But nobody thinks twice about upgrading Windows 7 tot 8 to 8.1 to 10 to 11 😉 Upgrading does work and having issues in the future because of it is something of the past in my experience. If you can migrate to a new server without a lot of work.. Please do so, but it is still an option (But keep your backup and snapshots close)
Brief How-To:
- follow all guidance and details from this thread.
- Mount the ISO in File Explorer or provide it to the VM (Hyper-V, VMware etc)
- Start Setup (or automate using setup command line arguments and PowerShell)
- Don't forget to optimize the VM post successful migration VM Generation for VMware and Hyper-V) etc.
- Convert Gen 1 VMs using Script from Altaro Hyper-V Dojo Post Migration (have a backup)
- Boot the ISO Convert from MBR to GPT using mbr2gpt tool (Gen 2 VM required for Hyper-V)
- do not delete the WinRE recovery at the end of the disk (right of the OS partition)
- VMware: do not forget to change the "installed OS flag" in extended options)
- When on Windows Server 2022, consider VBS / Secured Core options via VMware + WAC security settings. GPT / UEFI is a requirement for this.
- Hyper-V Gen2, GPT and UEFI will become required with Windows Server vNext, as well as we can expect vTPM, equivalent to Windows 11 security requirements. You won't pay twice if your WS 2019 and later are already using GPT and UEFI + Secure Boot as a base.
For example,
In-place upgrade: Windows Server 2008 R2> 2012 R2 > 2016> 2022 version
Migration: Windows Server 2008 R2> 2022 version
- There is no direct path for IPU. You can migrate specific roles but this depends on what you want to migrate tell me more about which roles and features. There are the Windows Server Migration Tools (Windows Server Feature via PS or Server Manager, but they are really old, no idea if these are still doing the job. Many roles have export and import features (given same OS language they are doing good.
- Then just to confirm, If I would be doing migration instead of in-place upgrade, I should still be following the upgrade path?
Migration: 2008 R2 > 2012 R2> 2016> 2022 Version