In a previous blog entry, I talked about the announcement of SP3 for SQL Server 2005 by the end of the calendar year. It was also announced that the service pack would come out after SQL Server 2008 was RTM. To Microsoft’s credit, all is going according to plan. “Katmai” or SQL Server 2008 was released in the first week of August after a single RC0. There are 3 months left in the year to release SP3 and it will be a relief to see it. You see, SP2 was released way back in February 2007…that’s almost 2 years between Service Packs…
Microsoft has developed a sound strategy for issuing updates to SQL Server. When a bug is fixed, a hotfix is issued. Periodically, cumulative updates (CUs)are issued which include all hotfixes since the last service pack (in this case SP2). Service Packs are tested as a whole and usually go through some sort of Beta or CTP process to involve customer feedback so there’s a higher level of confidence applying them. We are now up to CU 9 for SQL Server 2005 SP2. So we can install SQL 2005, then SP2, then CU 9 to get to the latest build. As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, I wish Microsoft would support slipstreaming with SQL Server 2005 so we can perform a single install to get to a certain baseline. Maybe with SP3? The development team is probably working on that right now, right? The interesting thing in looking at the KB article on CU 9 is the list of files affected is unbelievably long. It seems that almost every file has been touched since SP2.
In the notes on “How to obtain Cumulative Update 9” it states that “if you are not severely affected by any of these problems, we recommend that you wait for the next SQL Server 2005 service pack”. So, as they say in Boston, we are caught between a rock and a hard place. And there is now talk of CU 10 in October. Which points to an SP3 release by Thanksgiving?
Reading between the lines, Microsoft’s real message here is that if you are not “severely affected”, you should be very thankful. And you’ll be even more thankful come November 27th.
Later
Brian
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