Hi Kevin,
With regards to Step 3 in your previous post.
3. Copy in from a different machine an AX 2012 R2 version of the AXUTIL.EXE file and run the command line that you did above to set the install mode:
axutil set /installmode /server:<servername> /db:<dbname_model>
Is it ok if the AXUtil.exe command is run from another machine which has the AX2012 R2 management tools installed on it? I would imagine that you can set the installmode on the modelstore from anywhere so long as you specify the correct server and database.
-Albert