Active Directory upgrades deserve a dependency review

Documentation review

Microsoft’s Windows Server 2025 documentation describes changes to Active Directory, including functional levels, an optional 32k database page feature, and LDAP channel binding audit support. An original publication date was not confirmed, so this review appears in October 2026 and is not assigned a historical release date.

Supporting reference: What's new in Windows Server 2025 ↗

Separate the decisions

A server upgrade, a functional level change, and an optional database feature are separate planning decisions. Read the prerequisites for the particular change and record which dependency or business need justifies it. A newer platform does not remove the need to understand the existing forest.

Build evidence before a maintenance window

Inventory applications that query the directory, review authentication logs, and exercise a representative workload in a lab. Include service accounts and older integrations that may not have an active application owner. Assign an owner to each unresolved dependency before making the production plan.

Recovery is part of the design

Define the recovery path and validate it with the people who will carry it out. An upgrade plan should include observable success criteria and a decision point for stopping. This review is a planning framework; implementation should follow current Microsoft support guidance for the exact environment.