Announcing: Availability of Infrastructure Updates

[ronalg]

First published on MSDN on Jul 15, 2008

This morning the product group released the latest build of SharePoint to the web. This is the most up to date, and likely stable build of SharePoint to date. It includes a SIGNIFICANT number of fixes since SP1. In essence, it's a roll up of the roll ups since SP1 released, plus a little bit. You should install this ASAP. (I've pasted the details from the SharePoint team blog below) As always, don't forget that patching SharePoint will put some down time on your farm, as it updates the application bits on each server, as well as the database schema, so plan accordingly.

This morning we released to web three new important updates that affect SharePoint Server 2007 , Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 , Project Server 2007 , Search Server 2008 , Search Server 2008 Express and Project Professional 2007 .

The Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (KB951297) applies to:

• Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
• Microsoft Office Project Server 2007
• Microsoft Search Server 2008
• Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express

The Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (KB951695) applies to:

• Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

The Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Project 2007 (KB951547) applies to:

• Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007

The Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers contains the new Enterprise Search features that were shipped in Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express that were are not already in SharePoint Server 2007; this includes Federated Search capability , a unified administration dashboard and several Search core platform performance updates. Read more about the new Search features here .

There are several Content Deployment updates included in both the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers and the Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. These updates address many of the top customer reported issues with Content Deployment. Read more about the Content Deployment updates here.

The Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (KB951297) and the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Project 2007 (KB951547) include several usability and performance updates for Project Server 2007 and Project Professional 2007 in addition to addressing the top customer reported issues. Read more about the Project Server and Project Professional updates here and in this White Paper .

All three updates contain fixes and product performance updates driven by customer feedback which have resulted in significant platform performance improvements in several areas.  There has also been a focus on several core platform components, including improvements to upgrade, future patching and servicing, several targeted updates for workflow, the Business Data Catalog and inter-farm server authentication with Kerberos.  For more detailed information please read the KB articles listed further on in this post.

We strongly recommend that you install the updates that apply to you as soon as your patching and maintenance schedules permit.

The updates can be downloaded from the links below:

Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (KB951297) - x86

Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (KB951297) - x64

Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (KB951695) - x86

Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (KB951695) - x64

Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Project 2007 (KB951547) - x86

* The updates are applicable to all shipping languages.

Installation Instructions are available from the links below:

Deploy Software Updates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Deploy Software Updates for Office SharePoint Server 2007 - This article also applies to Project Server 2007, SharePoint Server 2007, Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express.

Install the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (Office SharePoint Server 2007) (This article will go live later today)

Install the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (Search Server 2008) (This article will go live later today)

Related Knowledge Base Articles are available from the links below:

Description of the Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (KB951695)

Fixes Included in the Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (KB953749)

Description of the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (KB951297)

Fixes Included in the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (KB953750)

Description of the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Project 2007 (KB951547)

Fixes Included in the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Project 2007 (KB953751)

Please read and familiarize yourself with the installation instructions before you start.

For reference the following products require the following updates to be applied.

If you are running SharePoint Server 2007 you should install the Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (KB951695) first and the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (KB951297) second.

If you are running Project Server 2007 you should install the Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (KB951695) first and the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (KB951297) second. You should also then install the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Project 2007 (KB951547) on all Project Professional 2007 client PC’s.

If you are running Search Server 2008 or Search Server 2008 Express you should install the Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (KB951695) first and the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (KB951297) second.

If you are running Project Professional 2007 you should install the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Project 2007 (KB951547).

It is strongly recommended that you install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Service Pack 1 and Office Servers Service Pack 1 before installing the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (KB951297) and the Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (KB951695).

The installation process will incur server and farm downtime that you will need to plan for – updates should be installed on all servers in a farm.