I'm in the process of learning networking essentials (active directory) with Windows Server 2012 . I have had one machine running Server 2012 core since it was RTM and working quite nicely. I decided to setup a second domain controller also running server 2012 core. I set it up through the wizard which was quite easy. Both machines are global Catalog servers. Both are running DNS. One of the first things i tried was to shutdown the original active directory server (expecting it to fail over automatically to the new one i created). Of course it did not and essentially the domain was down. Server manager gave me a kerberos authentication error. All my workstations have the primary dns entry as the original dc & the secondary dns as the new DC.
I've been trying to google figure out whats going on and i think it has something to do with FSMO but i'm not sure i quite understand the principles. I've found a couple links showing you have to transfer FSMO objects to other machines. First why do you have to do this in the first place? Why can't active directory replicate the FSMO objects between all the domain controllers in a domain whether it be 2 or 500? If you do have to transfer the FSMO to all domain controllers how often do you have to do this?
Hopefully after you transfer FSMO it can failover to the other domain controllers without having to do anything. If not what do you do when disaster strikes. I can see two situations either that main domain controller is temporary down (hardware upgrade/patching/ect) or its DOA.
Any help would be appreciated.
thanks...