I have a site with two 2003 domain controllers. I am installing Server 2012 as a virtual machine on VMware. I need the final outcome to have the Server 2012 be one of the two domain controllers and renamed to the same as the decommissioned domain controller.
So is it better to
1) demote the 2003 domain controller(of course move all FSMO roles to the 2nd 2003 domain controller first) and then rename and change ip, then install Server 2012, name it the old server name and ip and then promote and move all shares, printer queues, files?
or
2) install Server 2012 and promote to domain controller, move all FSMO roles to it, then move all shares, printer queues, files and demote old server and turn off and change name and ip address of Server 2012 to decommissioned server
I would think both gets the job done, but wondered from a real world application if one is "safer" or "better" than the other. I know in the old days, it wasn't good to rename a domain controller, but seem to find that now it is ok to do so. Having two domain controllers will help greatly as a safety net for this process.