Article ID: 875358
Article Last Modified on 9/26/2007
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services
INTRODUCTION
This article contains information about things to consider when you upgrade your Web servers in a Web farm deployment of Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services to Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Service Pack versions. In a Web farm deployment of Windows SharePoint Services, you must upgrade all the Web servers in the Web farm. This article also contains information about how to verify that Windows SharePoint Services service packs are installed successfully on the Web server.
Note A Web farm is sometimes referred to as a "server farm" (without the quotation marks). In this article, we use the term "Web farm" (without the quotation marks).
MORE INFORMATION
When you update Web servers in a Web farm deployment of Windows SharePoint Services, you must update all the Web servers in the Web farm so that all the Web servers in a Web farm are running the same version of Windows SharePoint Services. For example, when you upgrade your Web farm from Windows SharePoint Services to the latest Windows SharePoint Services service pack, you must install that Windows SharePoint Services service pack on all the Web servers in the Web farm. A Web farm configuration where a Windows SharePoint Services service pack is applied to some Web servers but is not applied to other Web servers is not supported and will cause failures.
The following is a list of things to consider when you upgrade the Web servers in your Web farm to the latest Windows SharePoint Services service pack:
- To avoid database locking issues, we recommend that you update one Web server at a time. If database locking issues occur, the virtual servers may not be updated correctly.
- Before you upgrade to the latest Windows SharePoint Services service pack, back up the databases that Windows SharePoint Services uses.
Note If you installed Windows SharePoint Services hotfixes that are not included in a particular Windows SharePoint Services service pack, you must contact Microsoft Product Support Services and obtain later versions of the hotfixes that will work correctly with that particular service pack. A Windows SharePoint Services hotfix that was obtained and installed on your computer before you installed a particular service pack will not work after you apply that particular service pack.
For example, if you installed a Windows SharePoint Services hotfix that was not included in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Service Pack 1 (SP1), contact Microsoft Product Support Services and obtain a version of that hotfix that will correctly with Windows SharePoint Services SP1.
To contact Microsoft Product Support Services, visit the following Microsoft Web site: - Pull each Web server out of the load balancing rotation when you upgrade your Web farm to the latest Windows SharePoint Services service pack. By doing this, users are not connected to the Web farm during the upgrade operation.
- We recommend that you stop the World Wide Web Publishing Service on each Web server before you install the latest Windows SharePoint Services service pack on that Web server. To do this, follow these steps:
- Click Start, click Run, type cmd in the Open box, and then click OK.
- At the command prompt, type net stop w3svc, and then press ENTER.
- Type exit, and then press ENTER to quit Command Prompt.
After you install the latest Windows SharePoint Services service pack on the Web server, start the World Wide Web Publishing service. To do this, follow these steps:
- Click Start, click Run, type cmd in the Open box, and then click OK.
- At the command prompt, type net start w3svc, and then press ENTER.
- Type exit, and then press ENTER to quit Command Prompt.
Note You install the service pack by either logging on to the server directly or by connecting through a console session. If you install the service pack while you are logged on using a Remote Desktop, the OHotfix log files that are located in your %Temp%\Ohotfix directory will be deleted after you log out and then log back on again. These log files are used later in the article to verify that the service pack update was successful.
You can create a console session from the computer that you are logged on by clicking Start, clicking Run, and then typing mstsc -v:<servername> /F -console in the Open box, where <servername> is the server that you want to connect to. For more information about how to use console sessions, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
278845 How to connect to and shadow the console session with Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services
After you install the latest Windows SharePoint Services service pack on a Web server, verify that the service pack installed successfully and verify that the virtual servers are updated successfully. To do this, follow these steps.
Step 1: View the log file
To verify that the service pack is installed successfully, view the Ohotfix(Number).log file that is located in the %Temp%\Ohotfix folder on the hard disk. If the service pack is installed successfully, the following entry is logged to the log file:
The update was applied successfully
To verify that the virtual servers are updated successfully, check the version number of the virtual server in SharePoint Central Administration. To do this, follow these steps:
- Start SharePoint Central Administration.
- Under Virtual Server Configuration on the Windows SharePoint Services Central Administration page, click Configure virtual server settings.
- Under Version on the Virtual Server List page, note the version number that is listed for the virtual server, and then use one of the following methods, depending on your situation:
- If the version number matches the version number of the Windows SharePoint Services service pack that you installed, the virtual server is updated correctly. You do not have to follow the remaining steps in this section.
Note The version numbers are listed as follows:- 6.0.2.5530 is the version number of the virtual server in the original release version of Windows SharePoint Services.
- 6.0.2.6361 is the version number of the virtual server in Windows SharePoint Services Service Pack 1 (SP1).
- 6.0.2.6411 is the version number of the virtual server in Windows SharePoint Services that has the security update installed that is described in the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
887981 MS05-006: Vulnerability in Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Team Services could allow cross-site scripting and spoofing attacks
- 6.0.2.6568 is the version number of the virtual server in Windows SharePoint Services Service Pack 2 (SP2).
- 6.0.2.8165 is the version number of the virtual server in Windows SharePoint Services Service Pack 3 (SP3).
- If the version number is less than 6.0.2.8165, the virtual server is not updated correctly. Continue to step 4.
- If the version number matches the version number of the Windows SharePoint Services service pack that you installed, the virtual server is updated correctly. You do not have to follow the remaining steps in this section.
- If the version number of the virtual server is not updated correctly and remains at a version that is earlier than 6.0.2.6568 after you install the latest Windows SharePoint Services service pack, use the Stsadm.exe command-line tool to force an upgrade of the content database and the configuration database. To do this, follow these steps:
- Click Start, click Run, type cmd in the Open box, and then click OK.
- At the command prompt, type the following lines, and then press ENTER after each line:
cd /d %commonprogramfiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\60\Bin stsadm -o upgrade -forceupgrade -url http://companyweb
- Type exit, and then press ENTER to quit Command Prompt.
For more information about how to use the Stsadm.exe command-line tool to administer Windows SharePoint Services, see the "Command-Line Operations" topic in the "Reference" section of the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Administrator's Guide. To obtain the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Administrator's Guide, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
REFERENCES
For more information about Windows SharePoint Services, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
Keywords: kbservicepack kbdeployment kbupdate kbinfo kbtshoot KB875358
