Do you wait before applying Service Packs or upgrades?

After a new Service Pack is released for a product (for example, Exchange 2010 Service Pack 1), users and management can get very excited about new features that the Service Pack will bring that will help them out, or fix problems that they had been having with the product.

Microsoft generally test their Service Packs very well, but things can go wrong.

As a general rule, we wait 4 weeks before installing a new Service Pack, and tell everyone to hold their horses.

Figure 1 - Even though managers and users might be pressing you to install a Service Pack - tell them to hold their horses!

After the 4 week period has expired perform the following tasks before installing the Service Pack:

• Do an search for any trending problem when updating to the new Service Pack
• Check for any known issues in the Microsoft KB with the Service Pack
• Read installation documentation
• Backup your system, or if you are using Hyper-V, take a snapshot
• Reboot before you are about to install a Service Pack

Following this rule should prevent disaster in the event that a Service Pack is troublesome.