SharePoint 2007 Patching Guide; Avoid Problems While Patching!

SharePoint 2007 has proven to be the most complex software packages I have ever had to deal with in my career. It can be a real nightmare to administer at times but if you make sure you follow certain best practices you can avoid a lot of problems with SharePoint 2007. Patching was one of the hardest parts about SharePoint 2007 for me when I first started using the software. I now have a list of steps to perform before I apply any patches. This list helps me to avoid issues while patching my servers. In this article I hope to give you some good ideas for helping you successfully patch your SharePoint 2007 server farm without issues.

First thing to do is to make sure you warn users of the date and time you are going to be performing the patches. (There will be down time). Typically I like to update and patch my systems in the early hours (6am). Downtime is a must when patching a SharePoint server, and letting users know about maintenance is very important.

First thing you will want to do is make sure you have a backup of all of your important IIS information:

1 - Click Start
2 - Click Administrative Tools
3 - Click IIS
4 - Right Click IIS Server Name
5 - Click All Tasks
6 - Click Backup\Restore
7 - Click Create Backup
8 - Type name for Backup (Use encryption if you need\want)
9 - Click OK
10 - Click Close

You should also backup the (C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv) and the (C:\WINDOWS\inetpub\wwwroot) folders. Keep in mind your folder locations may differ from my locations depending on your setup.

You should also create a backup of your SharePoint Search Index so you can restore it quickly as well. You could potentially just crawl your content again but a restore would be quicker, to perform the backup do the following:

1 - Open Central Admin
2 - Click Operations
3 - Click Perform a Backup (Backup and Restore Section)
4 - Click Check box for your Index
5 - Click Continue to Backup Options
6 - Select Full
7 - Type a location for the backup (D:\sharepoint\backups\index was mine)
8 - Click OK

This should then create a timer job to run and perform your backup for you.

The next step is to start blocking connections to the SharePoint Server Farm; during updates there shouldn't be any activity on the SharePoint sites. To stop incoming connections in a smooth manner you need to Quiesce the farm. To do this follow these steps:

1 - Open Central Admin
2 - Click Operations
3 - Click Quiesce Farm
4 - Enter a time amount
5 - Click Start Quiescing

That is all there is to the stopping incoming connections to your farm, after the time limit has been reached you should be able to stop all of your SharePoint websites in IIS and then run your updates. To stop your website just follow these steps:

1 - Click Start
2 - Click Run
3 - Type CMD
4 - Hit Enter
5 - Type IISRESET \stop
6 - Hit Enter

The command should let you know that is was successful, now all you have to do is run your patches on your server. Once you are done you can perform an IISRESET \start and your sites will be turned back on in IIS.

This is the safest method I have found for updating my SharePoint 2007 servers. Once the patches are applied you will run the SharePoint configuration wizard to complete the patching. This guide is meant to help you out, it isn't the only way to apply patches, it's just what I have found to work best for my environment and I hope it will help others.