Search results matching tags 'hotfixes', 'SQL Server 2008', and 'SQL Server 2008 SP1'

Cumulative Updates for SQL Server 2008 are available

AaronBertrand — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 16:51:00 GMT

On Monday, the SQL Server Release Services team released cumulative updates for both SQL Server 2008 SP1 and SQL Server 2008 SP2. The cumulative update for SP2 restores the fixes that were potentially undone by applying SP2 (or the SP2 CTP) after applying CU9 or CU10 to SP1. Confusing, yes, but at least it's straightened out now. We won't have to deal with this until the next service pack.

SQL Server 2008 SP1 Cumulative Update #11- build # 10.0.2804
KB #2413738
SQL Server 2008 SP2 Cumulative Update #1 - build # 10.0.4266
KB #2289254

And no, neither of these updates are applicable to SQL Server 2008 R2.

Mis-steps in the publication of Cumulative Updates

AaronBertrand — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:31:00 GMT

It used to be very difficult to obtain hotfixes for SQL Server (sometimes even to learn about their existence), and they were often unsupported. They have made extremely great strides in this area, and in general, I find the new procedure much more convenient : just go to the KB article, select the fix(es) you want, and you get an almost immediate e-mail with download links and brief instructions. No longer do I have to raise an issue with customer support and prove to them that I am both affected by the issue and responsible enough to handle the patch correctly. But there are still some holes in the process.

1. Trying to be "smart" about platform

The hotfix download page determines your platform and language and offers you the patch files for your current local environment. While this might be a good idea in some cases (such as client patches), for SQL Server this makes no sense at all. This methodology assumes that I am downloading patches only for my immediate machine, when in reality I am usually downloading for a variety of instances, many of which are not even on the same subnet as my workstation. Add to this the fact that in my experience the code just doesn't work - this is a pure x64 machine, and yet because I am using Firefox, the download page for every cumulative update thus far has limited my view to the x86 files. It is only a minor piece of extra work to get access to the x64 files I'm really after (simply click on the "Show hotfixes for all platforms and languages" link), but ideally I'd like to see a setting where (via a cookie, or LiveID, or something) I could say "always show all platforms" or "always show both x64 and x86 files." Or take away the "smarts" that hide the other platforms from me in the first place - presumably this is just a way to avoid actually documenting the files in sections, so silly people don't download files for the wrong platform.

2. Publication of correct files and filenames

While the screen shot will only highlight the repeating spelling error ("cumlative" vs. "cumulative") that has afflicted the last few cumulative updates, there was a pretty serious mistake in this most recent CU where the SP1 download actually contained the patch for RTM. Now a lot of people are extracting the file, trying to run it against their SP1 instances, and it finds there is nothing to update. Rather than assume a simple case of mistaken identity, many will assume that either the patch or their environment is broken. Right now you'll notice in the screenshot below that the core file has been pulled from the download page, so they are fixing the problem - in fact it has probably been corrected by the time you are reading this. But why was it wrong in the first place? Are the download packages not tested even once before they are published?

3. Being vague about the included files

There are always several files in each CU download, and they are not explained anywhere either on the download page or the original KB page. What is a "SapBi" or "RB2ClickOn" file? Do I need it? Who knows? I really believe that for each CU they need to have some section on the download page describing the use case where you would want to download any of the smaller files individually.

The proof

The proof is, as they say, in the pudding. You can see the highlighted areas in the screenshot from the points above (click to embiggen):

What to do?

Without direct interaction with those involved, I am not sure what else we can do to make corrections to these processes. The feeling of a CU is already inherently "rushed"; then when the files are published clearly without testing or attention to detail, that rushed feeling is exaggerated. I have commented about this problem on Connect and in a previous bog post. I've also stressed the need to fully document CUs before releasing them (but somehow left out the "testing" part). After today's incident, it is obvious there are still some items that have room for improvement.

At least from the outside, they look like relatively simple things to fix. Fixing them would lead to a lot less confusion among the customer base, and a lot more confidence in the general approach and attitude toward releasing updates. A lot of that is just about better communication. For example, while they were fixing this problem, they did not make any announcements whatsoever; they simply pulled the core files from the download page.

New Cumulative Updates for SQL Server 2008 RTM & SP1

AaronBertrand — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:23:00 GMT

Late last night, the SQL Server Release Services team announced new cumulative updates for both SQL Server 2008 RTM and SQL Server 2008 SP1.

There are too many fixes to mention, but I once again notice the trend that the "newer" branch (SP1) has more fixes than the RTM branch. I suppose they are serious about their commitment to end support for SQL Server 2008 RTM on April 13th of this year. If you haven't already planned upgrading your instances to SP1, it is definitely time to start thinking about it.

Cumulative Update 6 for SQL Server 2008 SP1 (KB #977443) brings you to build 10.00.2757.

Cumulative Update 9 for SQL Server 2008 RTM (KB #977444) brings you to build 10.00.1828.

As a note, these CUs once again contain a wide variety of files. The point of these files is to allow you to download and apply only the SNAC or Report Builder updates, which are smaller files. If you are not sure that you only need an individual update, then your best bet is to always download the file "SQL_Server_2008_<SP1>_Cumulative_Update_<#>" for your platform - the installer will figure out which components are eligible for the update. I wonder when the process that creates the files is going to be corrected so it spells "cumulative" correctly?

You can see the official announcements here and here.

New SQL Server 2008 Cumulative Updates are available

AaronBertrand — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:14:00 GMT

For those of you watching over the past couple of weeks, you may have noticed an out-of-band, mid-CU-cycle update to SQL Server 2008 SP1. The fix to a cluster issue was available only for the SP1 branch; RTM users had to employ a kludgy workaround (see the "WORKAROUND" section in KB #976761). There was also an Analysis Services issue uncovered recently, with the only fix available for SQL Server 2005 SP3.

Last night, Microsoft released official cumulative updates for both the RTM and SP1 branches, which deal with both of the above issues, among many others:

SQL Server 2008 Cumulative Update #8
Build: 10.00.1823
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975976
SQL Server 2008 SP1 Cumulative Update #5
Build: 10.00.2746
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975977