I'm installing a new Domain Tree into my forest. The original DCs are running 2008 R2 w SP1. My first attempt has been a complete disaster so I'm getting ready to start again.
In the first go-round I was trying to use a 2012 VM as the new DC, the new dcpromo process would go along just fine until it would arrive at the step "Replicating schema" at which point it would stop making progress and I would have to restart the machine. Investigating the log file it would tell me that there had been a DNS lookup failure (I verified that both the new server and my DCs could resolve each other).
As I said, I'm starting the process again. This time I'm beginning with a 2008 R2 server for the new DC as I'm more comfortable with it at this point, and I can upgrade afterwords. The question I have currently is, Should the new domain's DC be a member server of the original domain before I begin? I can't seem to find that stated in technet documents.