Overview
This article details how to upgrade Azure AD Connect using the in-place upgrade method.
An in-place upgrade is suitable for single server deployments with less than 100,000 objects. With two servers you would need to perform a swing migration.
Note this article only covers upgrading from a pervious version of Azure AD Connect to the latest. Do not follow it to upgrade the Azure AD sync tool (DirSync) to Azure AD Connect.
Custom Sync Rules
If sync rules have been changed from the default, after the upgrade a full import & full synchronisation will occur. This is necessary to ensure that the new configuration is applied to all existing objects.
Depending on the number of objects that are in scope of the sync engine, this could take a couple of hours.
Normal delta synchronisation is suspended (30 minutes by default), but password synchronisation continues.
Note custom sync rules will be lost during the upgrade as they are set back to the default! So review the sync rules prior to upgrade, either by using the AADConnectConfigDocumenter tool, or manually.
Upgrade
Launch the installer (AzureADConnect.msi).
An older version of Azure AD Connect has been detected (for info I’m upgrading v1.1.189.0 to v1.1.750.0). Synchronisation will be stopped during the upgrade and will not occur until the Azure AD wizard is finished. Click Upgrade.
Enter Azure AD global administrator credentials. Click Next.
Enter domain admin credentials for the local AD domain. Click Next.
Ready to go – click Upgrade.
The upgrade is complete. Click Exit.
Synchronisation will resume, you’ll see full import, full synchronization, and export operations running.
