September 2, 2005 at 10:30 am
I know SP4 has been out there for a few months, but I'm wondering if it is worth the effort. Most of our databases are for third party applications and I will have to research and test each one. I have close to 50 production servers to patch and countless MSDE's. We are using Backup Exec that installs MSDE on every Windows server. SQL is also installed on some developer's workstations. In all, there are probably 150 instances.
I would rather put the effort into moving to SQL 2005 instead.
What is the opinion out there? Is everyone working on SP4?
Thanks,
Kathi
Aunt Kathi Data Platform MVP
Author of Expert T-SQL Window Functions
Simple-Talk Editor
September 5, 2005 at 8:00 am
This was removed by the editor as SPAM
September 5, 2005 at 8:20 am
I'd put SP4 on, but then I have a lot of control over my environment and you sound like you'd have some job on your hands...
I was running hotfix 961 anway, there are fixes in SP4 I needed.
September 6, 2005 at 8:30 am
I installed SP4 but then I have significantly fewer than 150 instances to worry about. If you are planning to move to SQL 2005 before the end of the year it may be worth while to skip SP4 unless you have any specific issues that SP4 addresses. We don't plan on going to SQL 2005 for a while. It may be more than 1 year before we take that path so for us SP4 made sense.
Francis
September 6, 2005 at 1:38 pm
Since you are installing MSDE there is a specific 'bug', at present known by Microsoft, but undocumented to the general public. Here's the thread:
http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/forums/shwmessage.aspx?forumid=5&messageid=204414
Michas Konstantinos description is brief and to the point.
On another note, other threads and KB articles have been coming out lately (the last 2 weeks) indicating that SP4 'undid' a number of things (that may or may not be important to you) from SP3 or SP3A. I'd be especially cautious of you are running any 'hot fixes' or bug fixes'.
RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
September 6, 2005 at 4:04 pm
Thanks for the information.
Aunt Kathi Data Platform MVP
Author of Expert T-SQL Window Functions
Simple-Talk Editor
September 8, 2005 at 9:09 am
I found this discussion about problems with SP4. Seems to affect large queries running on servers with multiple processors. I've installed SP4 on a test server, and a low usage Production server, but after reading this, I think I'll hold off on installing on my other 2 servers that have large databases. Microsoft is aware of the problem, but no fix yet that I know of.
Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply