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We are currently using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (SP1) - 10.50.2500.0 (X64) Enterprise Edition (64-bit) on Windows NT 6.1 (Build 7601: Service Pack 1) as our production data warehouse database.

I need to apply hotfix / security patch version 10.50.2550.0 to our production data warehouse.

Can anybody please tell me can I directly apply this hotfix to my production server ??

I am new to database admin domain.

If I can directly apply the hot fix to production server then what are the precautionary steps that I have to take.

Shall I have to restart the production server compulsorily during off-peak hours ??

Note:

  1. I took the full backup of production database (.bak), msdb database (msdb.bak), ssas cube databases (.abf), report server (ReportServer.bak), ReportServerTempDB.bak, Encryption key backup.*

  2. I had disabled automatic security updates.

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  • How else would you apply the hotfix to the server if not directly?
    – joeqwerty
    Nov 26, 2012 at 20:37
  • I guess, we can apply to test server first and then to the production
    – oOo Testing1 oOo
    Nov 28, 2012 at 23:50
  • Right, but then you're applying it directly to the test server. When you apply it to the production server you're applying it directly to the production server. What you should ask is whether it should be applied to and tested on a test server before it's applied to your production server.
    – joeqwerty
    Nov 29, 2012 at 0:31

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You can apply a hotfix directly to a production server - it's your choice. I'd strongly suggest testing it first, myself, and taking a full backup of the system prior to applying it. To do this of course you need to have a test environment and the problem you're trying to fix needs to be one you can work around on the live system while you carry out the tests. Only you can answer that.

Microsoft say themselves that the hotfixes aren't as well tested as service packs, etc, and even if they were, there's only one way to make sure the dbs you're running are not relying on something which will have its behaviour changed by the fix.

The hotfix should hopefully say whether or not it requires a restart of the SQL services or anything else. I'd be very surprised if it didn't. As to whether or not that means you need to do schedule this for out of hours depends on your companies attitude to downtime on that db server.

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