I have 2 old servers with Server 2003 R2 SP3 that I have been using for years. They are domain controllers, but are basically used as file servers with AD. They currently have the templates of users that are used for admins to copy to avoid recreating permissions, which in turn avoids incorrect configurations of users. 

I bought 2 new servers that have Server 2012 R2 Standard edition installed. 

Is it possible to migrate the AD from the 2003 servers onto the 2012 servers? 

Thanks, S.

Hi

 You can able to migrate 2003 to 2012,also your server 2003 has sp3(cause first need to lesat sp2),you can follow this article for migration;

http://blogs.msmvps.com/mweber/2012/07/30/upgrading-an-active-directory-domain-from-windows-server-2003-or-windows-server-2003-r2-to-windows-server-2012/

But i dont recommend configure File server on a Domain Controller,you should migrate file server to another server.

After migration complete,demote server 2003 DC's from domain.and will do a metadata cleanup,finaly check AD DS,DNS,AD site and services,DFS updated.

Check for metadata cleanup

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc816907(v=ws.10).aspx?f=255&mspperror=-2147217396

And you can use ROBOCOPY for file server migration.

Hello,

there is no problem doing this. See my posted articles about the required steps.

Before starting assure with the support tools dcdiag, DNSLint and repadmin that the domain and the DCs are healthy.

DCs by default should only run AD, DNS and GC. Files servers should be separate member servers in the domain. If there is nothing possible for this then at least assure that you use different disks and not the system drive for the network shares.