September 9, 2010 at 8:25 am
Hello everyone
I am just starting at my new employer and noticed that many sql2005 servers are not patched with the latest SP3 yet.
So I am planning to patch them in the couple of weeks
First of all, I have to say that I do know how to download a patch file and run it against a server to patch it and restart the server afterwards.
But I would like to know how experience DBA's test SP's before patching them on a production box.
Or do we simple trust Microsoft with our hearts that a server with a new SP is always better than one without?
What if something went wrong in production after patching the latest SP? How to revert to the old state in this scenario?
Look forward to your opinions!
regards,
Ning
Bazinga!
September 9, 2010 at 8:59 am
First you test the SP in a test server. Then only do you apply it in production. You do not trust any patches from anyone blindly.
Also it would be a good idea to take a back up before applying patch (If the DBs are small it is easy). Then if something goes wrong you atleast have a back up.
-Roy
September 9, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Thanks Roy.
I am just wondering if this ever happened that a SQL sp patch went wrong.
Bazinga!
September 9, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Yes SP3 for SQL Server 2005 went wrong for us. If your sp3 install doesn't go well there is no way back. You can't unistall SP3. It gets integrated into the SQL Server itself. So to undo SP3 you have uninstall entire SQL Server.
So also test it on a test machine before doing on the prod. Also make sure that you have solid backups before you do sp3 install.
If the SQL Server is on a VM take a snapshot before doing SP3 install so that you can rollback in case you have any unexpected results.
Thank You,
Best Regards,
SQLBuddy
September 9, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Yes, I have heard cases where things has gone wrong. The SPs can have new functionality, deprecate some commands and this can cause havoc to your application that was running fine till the patch was applied. I have seen cases (Only very rarely) where the instance become unstable. It is better safe than be sorry.
-Roy
September 9, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Thanks again to you two experts.
So I will treat this SP3 updates as seriously as major changes and communicate well with the testing team with a good testing plan.
Bazinga!
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