1. To Patch or not to Patch SharePoint Charmaine Malan 3 October 2015 Johannesburg, SA

2. Sponsors @sps_events #SPSPlus, #SPSJHB, #SPSCPT, #SPSDBN Platinum Gold Silver

3. I have been working in the IT Industry for 18 years. I was asked to sort out a failed SharePoint installation and I fell in love with the product and the rest is history as they say.. @loeloe69 https://za.linkedin.com/pub/charmaine-malan/1/35a/a83 About Me

4. This session is about how to Patch your SharePoint servers and why it goes wrong and ways to fix it. Session Info

5. Session Index Why Patch the SharePoint Farm Patching vs Upgrading Types of Patches So how do I Patch the Farm? What if the Update failed? SharePoint Updates FAQ’s Questions

6. Why Patch the Sharepoint Farm? Updates and enhancements to certain SharePoint services and features Issues on your current Farm that can be resolved with a Patch (hotfix) Turn off Auto updating in Windows and rather manually download the patches you need

7. Patching vs Upgrading Upgrading = version-to-version or V2V Upgrade from different versions ex. SP2010 to SP2013 Patching = build-to-build or B2B Within the same product version ex RTM to SP1

8. Types of Patches

9. SharePoint SP, Uber, CU, PU Office Web App AppFabric Workflow Manager

10. Types of Patches - continued SP = Service Pack (thoroughly tested before distribution) “Uber” packages similar to “mini service Pack” CU = Cumulative Updates (sometimes prerequisite for future PU’s and CU’s) PU = Public Updates (includes security updates as well)

11. How do I Update SharePoint? Determine the SP Build level of the Farm using this Script: (get-spfarm).buildversion Download the Update files from Microsoft or http://www.toddklindt.com http://www.toddklindt.com Extract the files and then the process starts: -Update Binaries -Upgrade Databases -Complete upgrade

12. How do I Update SharePoint? – cont. Before you run the Update STOP the following Services -SP Timer Service (SPTimerV4) -SP Server Search 15 (OSearch15) -SP Search Host Controller (SPSeachHostController)

13. Scenario: 2 Svr Farm S1 & S2 Patching Stage – all Servers still online

14. Scenario: 2 Svr Farm S1 & S2 cont. Start patching Server 1 binaries S1 goes offline and S2 still continues with requests

15. Scenario: 2 Svr Farm S1 & S2 cont. If you did not STOP the before mentioned Services manually, running the Patch will automatically do it was well It will give and an outage on S1

16. Scenario: 2 Svr Farm S1 & S2 cont. S1 will finish patching and Reboot afterwards

17. Scenario: 2 Svr Farm S1 & S2 cont. Upgrade Databases – Total Outage on Farm! Farm has to be Offline to upgrade the databases Start with Server1 - 2 options to do this: Sharepoint Configuration Wizard or Powershell (psconfig) If you haven’t Patched all the Farm servers when doing the upgrade you will get this error:

18. Scenario: 2 Svr Farm S1 & S2 cont.

19. Patch Server2 again, because the Patching did not work the 1 st time If Done, Re-apply the Upgrade process (psconfig/Config Wizard)

20. Scenario: 2 Svr Farm S1 & S2 cont. Upgrading of Databases - happens here in the background on a TIMER-JOB

21. Scenario: 2 Svr Farm S1 & S2 cont. Upgrading the Databases using PSConfig - PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures

22. Scenario: 2 Svr Farm S1 & S2 cont. Upgrade Completed - Successful

23. Scenario: 2 Svr Farm S1 & S2 cont. Farm Availability Timeline Patching without Downtime is possible but you need another Farm on standby to cover when the Main Farm drops off the Network

24. Scenario: 2 Svr Farm S1 & S2 cont. Finalizing the Upgrade Process Verify that the Upgrade has completed Open Central Admin > Upgrade and Migration > Check Upgrade Status Server Status should show “Succeeded” for latest entry

25. Scenario: 2 Svr Farm S1 & S2 cont. Also click on Check product and patch installation status to Verify

26. What if the Upgrade Failed?  The SP Farm will be in a “half-baked state of doom” All blockers needs to be fixed and the upgrade retried on all Servers

27. Reasons for a Failed Update Binary Installation Failure (version not compatible, install error) PSConfig/SP Config Wizard Critical Error Farm/Databases upgrade error

28. Reasons for a Failed Update cont. Binary installation Failure have various errors: -“the expected version of the product was not found” -“the detection failed. This can be due to corrupted installation base” -“an error occurred while running detection” To troubleshoot these errors download the ROIScan.vbs script from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh221405http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh221405 and Review the report, and INSTALL the “missing patches” in order to re-update the Farm

29. Reasons for a Failed Update cont. PSConfig/SharePoint Config Wizard Critical Error: - Install Application Content – MissingMethodExeption - SPAdmin service not starting use this fix: “psconfig.exe –cmd services –install” - Databases upgrade Failures – use PSCDiagnostics log-file, could be that Databases might be read only – disconnect DB and rerun PSConfig/Wizard

30. SharePoint Updates FAQ’s SP2013 Update installations are SLOWWWW??? Why is the Upgrade process so Complicated? How can I make the Farm Patching Easier?

31. SharePoint Updates FAQ’s cont. SP2013 Update installations are so SLOWWWW??? - It is actually updating 10-20 products at the same time - Yes, the Binary update can take 5 hours – Good explanation at this link and a SCRIPT to run that reduces the time (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/russmax/archive/2013/04/01/why- sharepoint-2013-cumulative-update-takes-5-hours-to-install.aspx)http://blogs.msdn.com/b/russmax/archive/2013/04/01/why- sharepoint-2013-cumulative-update-takes-5-hours-to-install.aspx - AppFabric and Search takes up a lot of CPU time - Threads for Windows installer gets put in a longer line for processing

32. SharePoint Updates FAQ’s cont. Why is the Upgrade process so Complicated? - SharePoint is a complicated system that is actually a Web-platform, database engine of sorts, an apps framework, a service engine (search) and lots more. - It has a lot of moving parts - Complicated things are not easy to update

33. SharePoint Updates FAQ’s cont. How can I make the Farm Patching Easier? - Follow Microsoft best practises - Disconnecting Content Databases Pre-Upgrade - Patch SP without any downtime by having another Farm on hand - Lots of patience - Do proper Planning before Patching/Upgrading

34. Questions

35. SharePint – Have a Drink on Us @sps_events #SPSPlus, #SPSJHB, #SPSCPT, #SPSDBN Platinum Gold Silver

36. Questions