There was some conversation on Twitter about how to get notification when new Cumulative Updates are released for SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008. Aaron Bertrand (blog | twitter) had a good post that discusses some of the ways of finding out when a new Cumulative Update is released. I have to agree with him that Microsoft could improve their notification process. Perhaps they could add an email notification that people could subscribe to?

In the meantime, a lot people find out about new CUs from “bell ringers” like Aaron Bertrand and myself. We both usually blog and tweet about new releases they day they come out in most cases.  By the way, only SQL Server 2005 SP3 and SQL Server 2008 SP1 are “supported service packs”, so there will not be any more Cumulative Updates for older service packs of either of those versions of SQL Server.

Here is a list of other resources for keeping up with SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 Builds:

Microsoft SQL Server Release Services blog  (this is the best source)

The official RSS feed for SQL Server 2005 KB articles

The official RSS feed for SQL Server 2008 KB articles

It usually takes Microsoft a week or two to update the KB articles listed below:

The SQL Server 2008 builds that were released after SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 was released

The SQL Server 2008 builds that were released after SQL Server 2008 was released

The SQL Server 2005 builds that were released after SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3 was released

The SQL Server 2005 builds that were released after SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 was released

Here is my list of SQL Server 2008, SQL Azure, and SQL Server 2008 R2 Builds

-- SQL Server 2008 RTM is considered an "unsupported service pack" 
-- as of April 13, 2010
-- SQL Server 2008 RTM Builds     SQL Server 2008 SP1 Builds
-- Build       Description        Build        Description
-- 1600        Gold RTM
-- 1763        RTM CU1
-- 1779        RTM CU2
-- 1787        RTM CU3    -->      2531        SP1 RTM
-- 1798        RTM CU4    -->      2710        SP1 CU1
-- 1806        RTM CU5    -->      2714        SP1 CU2 
-- 1812        RTM CU6    -->      2723        SP1 CU3
-- 1818        RTM CU7    -->      2734        SP1 CU4
-- 1823        RTM CU8    -->      2746        SP1 CU5
-- 1828        RTM CU9    -->      2757        SP1 CU6
-- 1835        RTM CU10   -->      2766        SP1 CU7
-- SQL Azure Builds
-- Build            Description
-- 10.25.9200        RTM Service Update 1
-- 10.25.9268        RTM Service Update 2
-- SQL Server 2008 R2 Builds
-- Build            Description
-- 10.50.1092        August CTP2
-- 10.50.1352        November CTP3

Here is my list of recent SQL Server 2005 Builds

-- SQL Server 2005 SP2 is considered an "unsupported service pack"
--   SQL 2005 SP2 Builds             SQL 2005 SP3 Builds
-- Build       Description        Build       Description
-- 3042        SP2 RTM              4035        SP3 RTM
-- 3161        SP2 CU1              4207        SP3 CU1
-- 3175        SP2 CU2              4211        SP3 CU2 
-- 3186        SP2 CU3              4220        SP3 CU3         
-- 3200        SP2 CU4              4226        SP3 CU4         
-- 3215        SP2 CU5              4230        SP3 CU5          
-- 3228        SP2 CU6              4266        SP3 CU6        
-- 3239        SP2 CU7              4273        SP3 CU7        
-- 3257        SP2 CU8              4285        SP3 CU8
-- 3282        SP2 CU9              4294        SP3 CU9
-- 3294        SP2 CU10
-- 3301        SP2 CU11
-- 3315        SP2 CU12
-- 3325        SP2 CU13
-- 3328        SP2 CU14
-- 3330        SP2 CU15
-- 3355        SP2 CU16
-- 3356        SP2 CU17