You Must Manually Run PSCONFIG after Installing SharePoint 2010 Patches

First published on TechNet on May 24, 2011
[Today’s post comes to us courtesy of John Bay from Commercial Technical Support]

Patching SharePoint is a two-step process. The updated binaries are first installed and then psconfig must be run to update the SharePoint databases. SBS 2008 uses Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and updates automatically run PSconfig when installed via Automatic Updates or Windows Server Update Services.   SharePoint Foundation 2010 changes the method in which patches are installed. PSconfig no longer runs automatically after an update is installed. The SharePoint binary files are updated with the patch but the databases are not automatically upgraded. SharePoint runs in a compatibility mode that still allows the sites to function with the older version databases. The SharePoint Health Analyzer will scan the databases every night at midnight to determine if an upgrade is required. If the SharePoint Health Analyzer detects an upgrade is required, it will log the following error in the application event log:

Log Name: Application
Source: Microsoft-SharePoint Products-SharePoint Foundation
Event ID: 2137
Task Category: Health
Level: Error
User: CONTOSOspfarm
Computer: CONTOSOSERVER.contoso.local

Description: The SharePoint Health Analyzer detected an error. Product / patch installation or server upgrade required. All required products must be installed on all servers in the farm, and all products should have the same patching and upgrade level across the farm.

Upgrade is required on server CONTOSOSERVER. Without the upgrade, the server is not in a supported state.

On server CONTOSOSERVER, once all required products and/or patches are installed, perform an upgrade by either running PSConfigUI.exe or by executing the command "PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures". If a former upgrade attempt has failed, you may need to resolve upgrade specific issues before attempting upgrade again. Refer to the upgrade status page (http://contososerver:19158/_admin/UpgradeStatus.aspx) for information about current and prior upgrade attempts, and to determine issues that may be preventing upgrade from succeeding. For more information about this rule, see "http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=142700".

In order to update the SharePoint databases, you must manually run the PSconfig utility. To run the utility:

1. Open an Administrative command prompt.
2. Change directory to C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedWeb Server Extensions14BIN
3. Run PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures

Note: The Companyweb site will be inaccessible while the command is running. It is best to run the command after business hours. The amount of time the command takes to run will vary on the size of the database and the speed of the machine. On a reference machine with 8 logical processors, 32GB of RAM and a 2GB content database, the command took approximately 5 minutes to execute.

The SharePoint configuration wizard will launch and perform the configuration tasks. When the command is finished, you should see the following message:

Successfully completed the SharePoint Products configuration.
Total number of configuration settings run: 6
Total number of successful configuration settings: 6
Total number of unsuccessful configuration settings: 0
Successfully stopped the configuration of SharePoint Products.
Configuration of the SharePoint Products has succeeded.

For additional information on SharePoint Foundation 2010 patches see the following TechNet site: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff806326.aspx