March 10, 2016 at 10:11 am
Hi all,
I have never been a software developer and to be honest, branching and subversioning are not my forte.
While I am lost in the jargon of CU, GDR, Hotfixes, and ServicePacks, i came upon this site which kindof allowing me to understand the differences.
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/joew/archive/2008/05/07/60591.aspx
Though it is written more then 8 years ago ( not sure if it still applies ).
On general, i thought of the hierachy as
hotfix -> gdr -> cu -> service packs
and i would assume, whatever inside GDR would be inside the CU.
But chancing upon
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/ff803383.aspx
Opening MS15-058 (GDR) and opening CU 5 (KB 3130926)
I cant find any related KB number between the both.
So GDR contains fixes that should be release as a broadbase to the public but then it isn't included in the Cumulative updates ?
(maybe this GDR is for version before SP1, since the CU 5 is for SP1)
I am so confused -_-.
q1) Can gurus here, tell me what's the norm for patching your SQL server? (only Service Pack ?) and how does the patching installation normally works - on the download page, the patching instructions seems to be just a 3 liner
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 SP1 Update:
1) Review the Microsoft SQL Server 2014 SP1 Release Notes
2) Download the following file from the "DOWNLOAD" section on this page to your device: SQLServer2014SP1-KB3058865-architecture-language.exe
3) Once the download is complete, click RUN to begin the installation process immediately or SAVE to install at a later time.
Is it so straightforward ? do we have to shutdown our instances before the patch ?
q2) Lastly what is the different between a "Service Pack" and "SP Feature Pack" ?
Regards,
Noob
March 10, 2016 at 2:45 pm
March 15, 2016 at 3:25 pm
It is my understanding that a hotfix can have two versions, the GDR version (General Distribution Release) and the LDR (Limited Distribution Release), previously known as QFE (Quick Fix Engineering).
Here is a good explanation of GDR/LDR:
If you are talking about a Windows hotfix then whatever branch of the files that get replaced by the hotfix are installed is what gets installed by default. So if your files are GDR then GDR files get installed and if your files are LDR then LDR files get installed (until you install a new Service Pack and everything goes back to GDR). If you want to install a Windows hotfix in LDR version and you are on GDR then here are some good instructions for that:
If you are talking about a SQL hotfix or Cumulative Update then the LDR version is installed by default and the hotfix/update has to say GDR specifically for it to be GDR. Here is some good reading on that subject:
http://blog.dbi-services.com/sql-server-change-management-list-all-updates/
I like using this site for the latest SQL updates:
http://sqlserverbuilds.blogspot.com/
If you are installing SQL new, you don't have to deal with slipstreaming and making everything complicated. Just use the two switches:
/PCU=<Path to the extracted Service Pack files>
/CU=<Path to the extracted Cumulative Update files>
If you use them both then it patches all the way up to the CU you indicate on install.
To extract files from a Service Pack or Cumulative Update just run the update from a command line with the /x flag. It will prompt you for a location to extract the files to.
Hope that helps!
Jon
PS - Sorry about the links, the editor is not allowing me to post Hyperlinks for some reason. Maybe cause I am a newb here. 😀
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