SharePoint 2010 CU, Hotfix, Service Pack Upgrade Guide

Before CUs

• Backup web.configs of all IIS sites, all root for each application.  These are most often changed during updates.  If there are any customizations made make sure you have a backup.
• Poweroff all SharePoint servers before any virtual machine or other server snapshots, take powered off snapshot, then turn servers back on. Make sure this is done before CUs begin. Completely powering off server before snapshot will ensure no changes are active while backup is taking place.  This will also stop connections to the back-end database so no configuration, content changes, or other changes are occurring.

If you are planning to take SharePoint down for a major change, here is what I suggest to simplify this for everyone and to prevent database blocking:

• SharePoint Admin – Take the SharePoint WFE’s down stopping all connections to SQL Server.
• DBAs – Disable all backups jobs that would be scheduled to run during the upgrade then perform a Full backup.
• SharePoint Admin – Do your upgrade and verify that everything is successful.  Bring the WFE’s back online.
• DBAs – Re-enable our automated backup jobs.

Applying Latest CU
As a result of the new packaging, it is no longer necessary to install the SharePoint Foundation cumulative update and then install the SharePoint Server cumulative update. On the SharePoint 2010 Microsoft Download Updates page, moving forward just pick and install the update for SharePoint Server 2010.
Make sure you are logged in to each server with the service account used to install SharePoint.
Farm Setup / Farm Admin.

To install the updates you will need to download the latest software update from the Microsoft Updates for SharePoint 2010 Products page.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ff800847.aspx

• Once the zipped software update is available on all servers in the farm, use the self extractor to unzip the file and unzip the files where you can find their location.  Then open the exe file that was unzipped.
• Install the SharePoint Server update on the Central Administration Server. Reboot if prompted to do so.
• Install the SharePoint Server update on the other servers in the farm. Reboot if prompted to do so.

Do not run the Post Setup Product Configuration Wizard immediately after the installation in a server farm. If installation of CUs are not completed on all servers, once we try to run the PSConfig wizard it will detect that and it won’t continue. So make sure that all servers are installed with the CU hotfix exe before running PSConfig.

Run the SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard on the Central Administration server.

The following services will be reset:

• Internet Information Services
• SharePoint Administration Service V4
• SharePoint Timer Service V4

Run the SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard on the other farm servers. You can verify the updates on all servers in the farm by checking Central Admin > Upgrade and Migration > Upgrade Status.  This will indicate each server in the farm and its upgrade status (if psconfig completed successfully or not).

Navigate to Central Administration -> System Settings -> Servers in Farm and check that the Configuration database version matches the cumulative update you’ve just installed.  Next, check the status on each server in the farm is “No Action Required”.  Any server with “Upgrade available” will need to have the SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard run on it.



After CUs
Use a diff tool like TortoiseSVN diff tool, run a diff compare based on old backed up version of web.configs with new. Check all servers, all IIS sites, and all root web.configs of each application.



Failures in CUs
Best place to look to get an idea of errors, go to Upgrade Status in Central Admin under Central Admin > Upgrade and Migration > Check Upgrade Status.  Click on the failed status.  Scroll down to the log file area and open the upgrade log file location on the failed server (for example: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\LOGS\Upgrade-20131121-132055-403.log).  Search file for [error] string. Most errors will relate to missing feature Ids - The feature is referenced in the database but is not installed on the current farm.
If errors reported related to missing feature IDs, use FeatureAdmin from codeplex tool to find faulty features and RemoveFeatureID.ps1 script to remove faulty features.  Change the content database and the GUID in the last command.

4 sources for viewing log failures.  First three in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\LOGS

1. Upgrade log (Upgrade-...log)
2. error .log file shown at the end of PSConfigUI (PSCDiagnostics_...log) - example location: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\LOGS\PSCDiagnostics_11_5_2013_14_37_28_700_646345897.log
3. Main 14 hive logs (Look in main APP server ...log)
4. IIS application logs (%SystemDrive%\inetpub\logs\LogFiles)

If any failures are seen, make sure each application in IIS is started and running.  Sometimes a failure occurs and all sites are stopped.
If you fix changes from error logs and try to run PSConfigUI.exe again, it will only run through repair steps (first prompt will mention repair instead of upgrade).  Need to force upgrade by going to PSconifg.exe directory on server then use one of the commands below based on need.
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN

PSCONFIG References
Command line reference:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263093%28v=office.14%29.aspx

PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures
OR

psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait

[-inplace <v2v|b2b>]

If specified, the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard will perform an in-place upgrade. If v2v is specified, an in-place version to version upgrade is performed. If b2b is specified, an in-place build to build upgrade is performed.



Configuring SharePoint Products - Additional Information and Steps

Steps listed below of configuration tasks run during SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard

Step 1 : Initiating Sharepoint Product and Technologies wizard
Step 2 : Initiating upgrade sequence
Step 3 : Installing Help collections
Step 4 : Configuring Security Roles
Step 5 : Securing SharePoint Resources
Step 6 : Registering SharePoint services
-Installing services and proxies
Step 7 : Registering SharePoint features
Step 8 : Installing the application content files
Step 9 : Updating SharePoint Products
-This is the process that should take the longest amount of time on the application server in the farm.  The farm is being upgraded in the timer service process.
Step 10 : Finalizing the SP Products configuration

After Products Configuration Wizard successfull install, go to central administration web site to continue configuration.