SQL Server 2016 CU1 has been released and one thing I noticed was: –

FIX: Canceling a backup task crashes SQL Server 2014 or 2016

That’s pretty nasty, when I originally clicked on the link I was expecting to see detailed a pretty precise set of circumstances in which that bug can occur but no no, apparently not. Cancelling any backup task can lead to this happening.

This lead me to thinking about going to RTM versions of SQL when they’re released, there’s always a debate of whether to wait for the first service pack or not. Often people (like myself) are keen to upgrade to take advantage of new features that are available and will push for the upgrade.

Actually I tell a lie, I’ve always installed new versions of SQL Server on my laptop as soon as they’re available but I’ve been firmly in the “wait ’til the first service pack is released before deploying to production” brigade since SQL Server 2012.

The reason for this is that in a previous position, when SQL Server 2012 was released the devs were very keen to implement it immediately for a new project. I did halfheartedly object but in the end it was deployed (I even remember someone telling me, “yeah but it’s been in CTP for aaaaaages, they’ll have picked up most of the bugs”, ha ha ha).

Well, we had no end of problems and it wasn’t until SP2 was released and we patched our instance that things improved. KBs like this one really put me against using RTM versions and stuff like this made me even more cautious.

So when Microsoft announced that they were changing their patching policy and recommending that CUs should be proactively installed as they are released, I wasn’t particularly happy. Should I have been? Surely testing the CUs to the same level as the SPs is a good thing?

Being the pessimist that I am, all I saw with this was just more ways to introduce risk to my systems. If I’m not suffering any issues why would I install all CUs released instead of waiting for the SP?

And to be honest that’s what I’m going to do, unless I’m seeing a specific issue I’m going to wait for the SP and not bother with the CUs. Unless, and I’ve seen this mentioned, Microsoft do away with the SPs and just release CUs periodically.

Then I guess it’ll be a matter of installing on my dev/staging systems and test, test, test.