Domain Controllers Modernization

Challenge

The client wanted to modernize there Domain Controllers. They were running 2 domain controllers on Windows Server 2003 they wanted to upgrade it to Windows server 2012 R2.

Client was facing issue with the Old domain controllers, The Domain controllers were responding slow to ldap, DNS & Replication traffic.

Solutions

1. There were two existing Windows server 2003 Domain controllers so, We introduced two new Windows Server 2012 R2 domain controller in the environment.
2. And then let the DC to DC replication take place.
3. After the replication was completed we monitored the traffic on the new Windows Server 2012 R2 domain controllers.
4. We then suppressed the SRV records of the Windows Server 2003 domain controllers to check if there is a hard coded traffic existing in the environment. We monitored the 2012 R2 server again to check for such kind of traffic.
5. We then transferred the FSMO roles to the new Windows server 2012 R2 domain controllers.
6. After the migration we observed that there was much improvement in Ldap, dns traffic.
7. We also added DHCP on the Windows server 2012 R2 domain controllers to provide IP address to the servers existing in the environment.
8. We then demoted & decommissioned the old Windows server 2003 domain controllers from the environment.