I'm in Colorado. The server in question is in Alabama. Now, I've got a flash drive in the server and I've loaded Windows Server 2012 ISO onto it. This is just my sandbox server (at a residence, not a business), so it's not a huge deal if it's down, but it does run DHCP and DNS, which I'll switch over to the router while I upgrade. This is the only server at this location, so I can't use another machine on the LAN to deploy the upgrade or anything like that. Also, it has a RAID 10 in it (4 SATA drives).
I'm assuming this upgrade is fully possible remotely, but I have a few questions:
- Once I start, will someone need to be at the server to next>next>finish or no? I don't want to inconvenience my paren....um, the "users" there.
- If someone does have to physically monitor the server, what all will they have to do before it's back online and I can remote back to it. I use RDP with port forwarding on the firewall, but if the NIC reverts back to DHCP, my rule won't work (port 3389 > LAN static IP of the server). I have TeamViewer setup as a fail-safe, however.
Moreover, I'm just looking for some advice from someone who has done this. Thanks in advance...