DFS 2008R2 to DFS 2012 R2

[Nikumba]

We currently have a Win 2008R2 server running DFS we want to move to 2012R2 for DFS to take advantage of the new de-duplication tech built in.

However the person who did the orginal install has since left the business and there is no one in the IT office who knows that much about DFS.

I have looked at some guides but they appear to suggest you create a new 2012R2 server, replicate the data over and then add it into DFS.

The problem with that is, I do not have a spare 5Tb to copy the data to.

Has anyone done a migration like this before?

Is there another way to do this? Can I upgrade the 2008R2 box to 2012R2 without any issues?

Cheers

Kimbie

 

[nutcase]

A couple of consumer grade drives would hold that data for you for not a lot of cost? Plus your regular backup should be sufficient?

A clean install is preferable but an in-place upgrade is technically possible from what I've read. Is the server virtualised? Might be worth replicating it and having a practice on a different box (without the data, just the OS)?