Migration from Server 2003 domain to Server 2012

Hello guys,
I will be migrating a small business' Server 2003 domain to a Server 2012 domain. Its a pretty simple setup with about 10 client pcs, and just one server. But I have no experience with Server 2012 yet, so in that regard I have a few questions. The server will be running Server 2012 standard.
Which antivirus product is usually used in small business enviroments, on server 2012? System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection is probably not suited for such a small domain, where none of the other products in the System Center suite will be necessary.
I can see there are a few options, such as Eset, AVG etc.
I will be migrating a small business' Server 2003 domain to a Server 2012 domain. Its a pretty simple setup with about 10 client pcs, and just one server. But I have no experience with Server 2012 yet, so in that regard I have a few questions. The server will be running Server 2012 standard.
Which antivirus product is usually used in small business enviroments, on server 2012? System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection is probably not suited for such a small domain, where none of the other products in the System Center suite will be necessary.
I can see there are a few options, such as Eset, AVG etc.
Current certs: MCP (210) MCSA (270, 290, 291 and 680) MCTS (680, 640)
Comments
Antivirus choices invariably come down to six of one or half a dozen of the other. AVG is good enough, even if it has its problems -- they all do.
Complete: 55/120 credits SPAN 201, LIT 100, ETHS 200, AP Lang, MATH 120, WRIT 231, ICS 140, MATH 215, ECON 202, ECON 201, ICS 141, MATH 210, LING 111, ICS 240
In progress: CLEP US GOV,
Next up: MATH 211, ECON 352, ICS 340
I don't think any applications are dependent on the DC by name in the migration I'm going to perform, but do you have any experience with renaming DCs in production enviroments?
Perhaps I could install the new server as an additional DC, then rename the old DC, and finally rename the new DC to the old DC's name, if I have to keep the computer name of the old DC. would you recommend this approach?
This is the basic approach I would take:
Setup new DC
Join to domain
Run ADPrep or any other dependencies (again, haven't done 2012)
Run DCPromo
Setup DNS if not done as part of DCPromo (not sure how things go in 2012, but most likely you will have the option)
Setup DHCP or other services if necessary (typically in a single-server environment the server is running AD/DNS/DHCP)
Transfer FSMO roles to new DC
Modify DHCP to point services to need DC
Point old DC to new DC for primary DNS
Decom old DNS
Decom old DHCP and other services if applicable
Demote old DC
Disjoin server from domain
Decom server and delete its A record
Add Alias record of old server's hostname pointing to new servers' name
Walk through this article to get file sharing with the alias working (this isn't necessary in all cases or even most, but not knowing more about the setup I would recommend it)
Even this list misses a lot of the detail and possibly a step or three, but it should get you started. Do not monkey around with renaming the DCs as part of your process. No good will come of it and it isn't necessary.
You should also make sure what services are installed and in use on the old server. Again, I assume DHCP, DNS, and AD, but there's really no reason to assume. Check Manage Your Server, services.msc, and Add/Remove Programs to see what is going on.
Also, if this server is running SBS 2003, rather than vanilla Windows Server 2003, the process changes and you will need to read the relevant white paper, which probably doesn't exist for SBS 2003 to 2012.
Complete: 55/120 credits SPAN 201, LIT 100, ETHS 200, AP Lang, MATH 120, WRIT 231, ICS 140, MATH 215, ECON 202, ECON 201, ICS 141, MATH 210, LING 111, ICS 240
In progress: CLEP US GOV,
Next up: MATH 211, ECON 352, ICS 340
Also its thankfully not SBS, its the plain Server 2003. I have no experience whatsoever with SBS versions of Windows Servers.
Btw, In Server 2012, you don't have to run Adprep manually when addning a 2012 DC in a 2003 32-bit domain. Its done automatically. There is also no dcpromo.
One other thing to mention is if Server 2012 has BPAs and they're anything like 2008 R2, there will be some errors and warnings. Many are worth checking, but many will be a result of a single-server domain, which means they're obviously okay to ignore.
Complete: 55/120 credits SPAN 201, LIT 100, ETHS 200, AP Lang, MATH 120, WRIT 231, ICS 140, MATH 215, ECON 202, ECON 201, ICS 141, MATH 210, LING 111, ICS 240
In progress: CLEP US GOV,
Next up: MATH 211, ECON 352, ICS 340
But there might possibly be a better way to do this? I haven't migrated a file server before.
If you can get drive letters to match up on destination server or don't mind doing some find and replace in notepad, you can save yourself some time in creating shares by migrating the shares themselves. If it's fewer than ten shares I would just do it manually.
There are other options but for a 1-to-1 like this I generally just do it "manually" with Robocopy.
Complete: 55/120 credits SPAN 201, LIT 100, ETHS 200, AP Lang, MATH 120, WRIT 231, ICS 140, MATH 215, ECON 202, ECON 201, ICS 141, MATH 210, LING 111, ICS 240
In progress: CLEP US GOV,
Next up: MATH 211, ECON 352, ICS 340
Also, I'm not a big fan of Robocopy but it works as long as you have the right syntax and permissions. The permission errors you are getting likely mean that the account you are using to run robocopy does not have access to something. If you have nested and explicit permissions, you will need to give yourself explicit access to these folders to successfully run robocopy.
Also, it doesn't really matter since both work, but it is more proper, if you will, to use a CNAME record since it represents an alias. For clarity, it is generally recommend to have only one A record per hostname, with any aliasing accomplished with CNAME records, not host records.
Edit: A note on Robocopy and varying nested permissions:
When encountering this, I will generally run cacls, xcacls, or icacls as needed to fix any permissions issues. For example, to grant domain admins full control over a directory recursively:
icacls [drive]:\[dir]\* /grant "[domain]\domain admins":F
In some cases, it is also necessary to perform a recursive Takeown. This is not ideal because it can take file ownership away from an intended owner, but it generally is not harmful.
One final note: When migrating between virtual systems on the same or compatible virtualization platforms, the best file migration method can actually be to attach the source systems hard disk, then perform the registry "migration" of shares. This negates any need for file permission changes or file moves since you are simply putting the original filesystem on a different machine. The same possibility applies to physical drives, but that is obviously not going to be possible in many situations and not ideal in most.
Complete: 55/120 credits SPAN 201, LIT 100, ETHS 200, AP Lang, MATH 120, WRIT 231, ICS 140, MATH 215, ECON 202, ECON 201, ICS 141, MATH 210, LING 111, ICS 240
In progress: CLEP US GOV,
Next up: MATH 211, ECON 352, ICS 340
Complete: 55/120 credits SPAN 201, LIT 100, ETHS 200, AP Lang, MATH 120, WRIT 231, ICS 140, MATH 215, ECON 202, ECON 201, ICS 141, MATH 210, LING 111, ICS 240
In progress: CLEP US GOV,
Next up: MATH 211, ECON 352, ICS 340
SYSVOL and NETLOGON are not being shared from the Server 2012 DC. Everything seems to be just fine, and I can see the connection objects in AD Sites and Services. If I try to replicate them, the replication is succesful, but still sysvol and netlogon are not being shared on the new DC, and they are therefore not being replicated.
I can ping both servers from each other with their FQDN. Old Server has itself as the , and the new server as the alterante DNS server in tcp/ip properties. While its vice versa on the new server.
Any tips on this regard?
Complete: 55/120 credits SPAN 201, LIT 100, ETHS 200, AP Lang, MATH 120, WRIT 231, ICS 140, MATH 215, ECON 202, ECON 201, ICS 141, MATH 210, LING 111, ICS 240
In progress: CLEP US GOV,
Next up: MATH 211, ECON 352, ICS 340