Recently I was talking with a friend about the need to apply the Cumulative Updates (CU) to SQL Server instances. This individual thought that they needed to apply every CU to an instance, and was spending way too much time applying updates each time a new installation was performed.
I had to explain that the CUs are cumulative by definition, and you only need to apply the last one, along with any service packs (SP) on which they are based. You do know that CUs are based on SPs, don't you?
However I usually caution people about just applying all CUs as they are released. The testing on these items isn't a stringent as the testing of a Service Pack, and you don't necessarily need to apply these fixes.
That had me thinking about the way in which we apply patches. Often we blindly apply patches, wanting to be on the latest and greatest software out there. However the latest isn't necessarily the greatest, and more importantly, it's not necessarily a good use of resources. For security updates, we probably should just apply them, but what about non-security patches?
What about just popping up a dialog when the error occurs? The software knows what the issue is and could easily query a server at Microsoft (or some local WSUS server) and determine if a fix is available. If so, they can tell the user there's a fix available and include links to the KB information.
That might easily prevent some wasted efforts by administrators that think they need to apply every patch that's released.
Steve Jones
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