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One of my domain controllers in server 2003 needs to get upgraded to 2012.<br />
Once upgraded it still should be a domain controller but the domain/forest are still going<br />
to be at the server 2003 functional level (for the moment). <br />
My question is, since the 2012 DC is still going to be part of a 2003 domain/forest, is it necessary to run forestprep/domainprep?
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One of my domain controllers in server 2003 needs to get upgraded to 2012.
Once upgraded it still should be a domain controller but the domain/forest are still going
to be at the server 2003 functional level (for the moment). 
My question is, since the 2012 DC is still going to be part of a 2003 domain/forest, is it necessary to run forestprep/domainprep?

Upgrading active directory domain controller

Windows Server 2012 is the server version of Windows 8 and the successor to Windows Server 2008 R2. Windows Server 2012 is the first version of Windows Server to have no support for Itanium-based computers since Windows NT 4.0. Windows Server 2012, now in its second release (Windows Server 2012 Release 2) includes Foundation, Essentials, Standard and Datacenter, and does not support IA-32 or IA-64 processors.

Windows Server 2012

Windows Server 2003 was based on Windows XP and was released in four editions: Web, Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter. It also had derivative versions for clusters, storage and Microsoft’s Small Business Server. Important upgrades included integrating Internet Information Services (IIS), improvements to Active Directory (AD) and Group Policy (GP), and the migration to Automated System Recovery (ASR).

Windows Server 2003

Active Directory (AD) is a Microsoft brand for identity-related capabilities. In the on-premises world, Windows Server AD provides a set of identity capabilities and services, and is hugely popular (88% of Fortune 1000 and 95% of enterprises use AD). This topic includes all things Active Directory including DNS, Group Policy, DFS, troubleshooting, ADFS, and all other topics under the Microsoft AD and identity umbrella.