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Remove 2012 domain controllers from a 2008R2 domain due to licencing
Posted on 2016-10-10
Hi
We have recently taken over support for an organisation and discovered that even though they only have CALS for server 2008 a number of 2012 domain controllers have been installed although the functional levels have not been raised, given the number of users involved upgrading the CALS is not going to be an option, we are considering demoting and removing all of the 2012 domain controllers and replacing with Server 2008 DC's, is this possible or would removing them cause issues resulting from any extensions / modifications of the schema that may have happened when they were installed.
Thanks
Nick
We have recently taken over support for an organisation and discovered that even though they only have CALS for server 2008 a number of 2012 domain controllers have been installed although the functional levels have not been raised, given the number of users involved upgrading the CALS is not going to be an option, we are considering demoting and removing all of the 2012 domain controllers and replacing with Server 2008 DC's, is this possible or would removing them cause issues resulting from any extensions / modifications of the schema that may have happened when they were installed.
Thanks
Nick
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There should be no problem removing the 2012 DCs
Just check to ensure they didn't get CALs with SA - if so, then they may well be licensed for 2012 afterall.
Just check to ensure they didn't get CALs with SA - if so, then they may well be licensed for 2012 afterall.
Active today
is this possible or would removing them cause issues resulting from any extensions / modifications of the schema that may have happened when they were installed.The schema was extended early in the promotion of the first 2012 DC (during the "adprep" process, which used to be required manually but is now performed automatically). This won't cause any issues if the 2012 DCs are removed, though. Since the functional levels weren't raised - and in fact couldn't be as long as those 2008 DCs were present - everything will continue to operate normally.
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