How to Apply Cumulative Updates and Avoid Issues

Hi all,

The last few weeks, I was busy in patching our SharePoint 2007 and 2010 farms in test and prod environment.

Of course, I faced several issues, but now, I can say that all farms are up-to-date until Feb 2012 CU.

I can warmly told you to monitor available space on your SQL disk, and the Errors in your Event Viewer for the lack of access rights on the DB's.

Part 1 : Procedure followed to apply the CU

First of all, write down the complete list of your servers of all your farms.

I've 3 environments : PROD, UAT (should be as close as possible to PROD) and Test.

Test is only used for big changes, or in standalone.

PROD and UAT are very important, as if UAT pass the tests, we are allowed to apply the changes in PROD.

This procedure is for the patch, adding new feature, and in this case : allow the end-users to test their migrated sites and to fill the survey.

Doing this, we were able to point out the sites that were customised via SharePoint Designer in 2007.

Now, let's go for the CU process :

STEP1 :

-          Download and prepare the binaries of the CU that will be needed for your patching process.

-          Install the binaries on all your servers in the same Farm. (proceed farm by farm)

-          At the end of this install process, do not click on the message box : "Do you want to reboot to finalise the installation of this package?"

Sometime, this message was displayed, sometime not… Strange…

-          When the binaries are installed on all servers, click on "OK" or "No", following the end message that you got.

STEP 2 :

-          Open the "Configuration Wizard", click "Next", then "YES"

-          And WAIT !!!!

-          Do same operation on all the remaining servers of your farm

-          When all servers are at the same step, go to your CA, and press "Next"

-          When the Wizard is successful, do not click on "Finish", but continue the Configuration process to the next servers, one-by-one.

STEP 3 :

-          On the CA, click "Finish" and check your farm version (System Settings è Manage Servers in this Farm

-          Check the Version, and the status of your servers in the farm. (in this example, 2 servers are upgraded, not the 2 others)

-          Check the Upgrade Status via Upgrade and Migration è Check Upgrade Status

Part 2 : Errors found

Case #1 : Event 3760

The account issue occurs specially on our TEST environment, as DB's are copied from prod, removed and replaced for test purpose.

Case #2 : Event 3758

SQL disk-volume was full.

Solution is to move some DB's to another volume, but SharePoint Services have to be stopped.

Case #3 : Database is deleted, but still listed in SharePoint 2010 CA

I also had this Event 3760, same error as in case #1.

The difference is that the concerned DB was deleted from SQL disk, but was not deleted from SharePoint CA.

So, I removed the entry via Application Management è Manage Content Database, select the related Web Application, and then delete the missing Database Name entry.

Part 3 : used tips

-          If you have the status "Upgrade Available" in the "Farm Information" page, you can always execute this command from your BIN folder (<drive>:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN) :

psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait

               or
            psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures

In my example, I had to wait longer than in the other farms, as lot of DB's were present, and to run                                                the second psconfig command on the last server.

-          When you've installed the binaries, and you need to install again the CU, you can force it's installation via the command line :

<filename>.glb.exe PACKAGE.BYPASS.DETECTION.CHECK=1

-          In the configuration Wizard, if there is some installed patches shown as "Missing on <servername>", you can use this PowerShell command :

Get-SPProduct -local

            Then, press "Refresh" in the Configuration Wizard".

If you still have issues, please check the created logs, and the Event Viewer.

Doing this let me update all my servers until Feb 2012 CU, in SharePoint 2007 and 2010.

That's all folks.

SharePoint document Category : double check for typo

Today's story is only to show how this product (SharePoint) is known by the end-users.

When they do modification into their documents, and the result is different as expected, it is always SharePoint's fault.

Today, a colleague of mine call me :
- Hey, Mr SharePoint. There is a problem. Can you check ?
- Yes, what is the problem - I said.
- I've change the category of my document, and it is gone from SharePoint.
- Ok, let's check in explorer view (Documents are still on SharePoint 2007 platform).

... Of course, the document is in the library.

- So, what have you done ?  -- I asked.
- I've changed the category, like this (he saved the doc on his laptop, then delete it from SharePoint, and upload it again)
So, my colleague repeat what he does previously, and I checked all the settings he choose, specially the category.

Then, he said, like a winner : "Look, my doc is not there !!!"

- Yes, but check the next category .... you'll find it !!!!

So, SharePoint made what he was asked to do.
The used category was not the same as the expected one. Instead of "IIS 7.0", the selected category was "IIS 7"

So, double pay attention to the typo when creating categories.

Now, my colleague's nickname is "PEBKAC"

SharePoint 1 - PEBKAC 0



That's all folks