I'm in the process of promoting a Windows Server 2012 R2 at a remote site to replace our Windows Server 2003 R2.  During the installation process I noticed an option to "Replicate from:" and you can either keep the default option "Any domain controller" or you can choose a domain controller.  Since it's in the same site I choose to replicate from the Windows Server 2003 which we will call Win2k3-DC01.  The promotion failed on the 2012 server saying there was a schema mismatch.  The domain and forest functional level is currently 2003.  The other DC's are both Windows Server 2008 R2, should I just leave the default option and let it replicate from any domain controller?  I haven't tried this option yet but I wanted to get some input before I went ahead and did this.

Hi

 Please first check your schema version;

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/558112

Then you can able to follow the steps on this article for migrate from server 2003 to 2012;

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/

I did a query on the for the schema version and it came back as "69": Windows Server 2012 R2.   We are running Active-Directory Intergrated Zones.  DCDiag reported no errors and I used ADREPLSTATUS tool and there were no errors with replication.

Does Adprep.exe need to be run on the Windows Server 2003 R2 DC?  From the results I'm kinda confused why I would get a schema mismatch error.

I noticed in the logs that the previous schema version was 47, and during the installation it was upgraded to 69.  Is it possible that running the promo again that this error would be resolved now that it's at the proper schema version?

What do you get when you run from a admin command prompt

dsquery * cn=schema,cn=configuration,dc=domainname,dc=local -scope base -attr objectVersion

The PowerShell version below does not require any customization:

Get-ADObject (get-adrootdse).schemaNamingContext -Property objectVersion

The table below shows Active Directory schema versions.

Windows 2000 Server	13
Windows 2003 RTM, SP1, SP2	30
Windows 2003 R2	31
Windows 2008	44
Windows 2008 R2	47
Windows Server 2012 Beta	52
Windows Server 2012	56
Windows Server 2012 R2	69

I already answered that question in the previous 2 post.  The ObjectVersion is 69

you mentioned a schema mismatch version thus why I mentioned it, did you look at the link below and see if any of the sympoms stated are the cause?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/838179

"I did a query on the for the schema version and it came back as "69": Windows Server 2012 R2.   We are running Active-Directory Intergrated Zones.  DCDiag reported no errors and I used ADREPLSTATUS tool and there were no errors with replication.  Does Adprep.exe need to be run on the Windows Server 2003 R2 DC?  From the results I'm kinda confused why I would get a schema mismatch error."

That was my reply to a previous comment.  I'm not certain the link you sent applies in this case.  I'm trying to promote a 2012 server not a 2003 though the error is similar in regards to the mismatch.

Windows 2012 R2 runs ADPREP forest and domain prep when you do the dcpromo wizard, if you have no 2008 and 2008 R2 DCs in your environment you can run the adprep /rodc prep from 2012 but it is not required... the link I sent earlier goes over miss match schema error troubleshooting. In short some of the reasons this can happen are listed below.

This problem may occur if one of the following conditions is true:

• Condition 1: The source domain controllers copy of the Active Directory directory service contains duplicate multi-valued attributes.
• Condition 2:One or more attributes or pages in the database of the source domain controller are corrupted.
• Condition 3: The source domain controller has attributes in its database that are not covered by the current schema because of schema deletion.

Hi,

Can you upload the output of below command . Also possible can you post the DCPROMOlog of new 2012 DC.

repadmin /showreps /v

Possible check is there any event 8418

> dsquery * cn=schema,cn=configuration,dc=domainname,dc=local -scope base > -attr objectVersion   Just to make sure: Run this and append "-s <server>". Replace <server> with all DCs you have, to verify the schema version is up to date on all AD replicas.  

repadmin /showreps /v

C:\Documents and Settings\administrator.my-domainname>repadmin /showreps /v
SITE02\AD-DC02
DC Options: IS_GC
Site Options: (none)
DC object GUID: 48b2be33-ab42-46c4-a628-18533bb9e64f
DC invocationID: fc5a5692-d3b5-4755-9359-ef217c6fd583

==== INBOUND NEIGHBORS ======================================

DC=my-domainname,DC=com
    SITE01\AD-DC01 via RPC
        DC object GUID: be225309-c7df-471e-903d-fd42280d1d26
        Address: be225309-c7df-471e-903d-fd42280d1d26._msdcs.my-domainname
.com
        DC invocationID: 3f3ef662-4fb1-442e-b75e-a1e438d6f4c7
        DO_SCHEDULED_SYNCS WRITEABLE COMPRESS_CHANGES NO_CHANGE_NOTIFICATIONS
        USNs: 43142457/OU, 43142457/PU
        Last attempt @ 2015-07-02 08:23:28 was successful.

CN=Configuration,DC=my-domainname,DC=com
    SITE01\AD-DC01 via RPC
        DC object GUID: be225309-c7df-471e-903d-fd42280d1d26
        Address: be225309-c7df-471e-903d-fd42280d1d26._msdcs.my-domainname
.com
        DC invocationID: 3f3ef662-4fb1-442e-b75e-a1e438d6f4c7
        DO_SCHEDULED_SYNCS WRITEABLE COMPRESS_CHANGES NO_CHANGE_NOTIFICATIONS
        USNs: 43142015/OU, 43142015/PU
        Last attempt @ 2015-07-02 08:23:28 was successful.

CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,DC=my-domainname,DC=com
    SITE01\AD-DC01 via RPC
        DC object GUID: be225309-c7df-471e-903d-fd42280d1d26
        Address: be225309-c7df-471e-903d-fd42280d1d26._msdcs.my-domainname
.com
        DC invocationID: 3f3ef662-4fb1-442e-b75e-a1e438d6f4c7
        DO_SCHEDULED_SYNCS WRITEABLE COMPRESS_CHANGES NO_CHANGE_NOTIFICATIONS
        USNs: 43142015/OU, 43142015/PU
        Last attempt @ 2015-07-02 08:23:28 was successful.

DC=DomainDnsZones,DC=my-domainname,DC=com
    SITE01\AD-DC01 via RPC
        DC object GUID: be225309-c7df-471e-903d-fd42280d1d26
        Address: be225309-c7df-471e-903d-fd42280d1d26._msdcs.my-domainname
.com
        DC invocationID: 3f3ef662-4fb1-442e-b75e-a1e438d6f4c7
        DO_SCHEDULED_SYNCS WRITEABLE COMPRESS_CHANGES NO_CHANGE_NOTIFICATIONS
        USNs: 43142015/OU, 43142015/PU
        Last attempt @ 2015-07-02 08:23:28 was successful.

DC=ForestDnsZones,DC=my-domainname,DC=com
    SITE01\AD-DC01 via RPC
        DC object GUID: be225309-c7df-471e-903d-fd42280d1d26
        Address: be225309-c7df-471e-903d-fd42280d1d26._msdcs.my-domainname
.com
        DC invocationID: 3f3ef662-4fb1-442e-b75e-a1e438d6f4c7
        DO_SCHEDULED_SYNCS WRITEABLE COMPRESS_CHANGES NO_CHANGE_NOTIFICATIONS
        USNs: 43142015/OU, 43142015/PU
        Last attempt @ 2015-07-02 08:23:28 was successful.

I don't see a DCPROMO.log file I do have a DCPROMUI.log file

you should have the log file

DCPromos.log

The %windir%\debug\dcpromos.log is created by the user interface during the graphical user interface mode setup

Have you try running the command on ADPREP.exe on Windows 2003 R2 DC?

Sorry I forgot to post this.  I was looking through the Adprep log file:  Adprep was unable to replicate the Naming Context (NC) DC=my-domainname,DC=com from Domain Controller (DC) AD-DC02.my-domainname.com to Domain Controller (DC) AD-DC03.my-domainname.com.
[2015/06/30:15:36:16.987]
Adprep encountered a Win32 error. 

Error code: 0x20e2 Error message: The replication operation failed because of a schema mismatch between the servers involved.

What I don't quite understand is why I'm not receiving any replication errors when I run both the command or ADRepStatus tool.

Based on error i would suggest please have look article:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2734946