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 ways to re-apply sp2

Author  Topic 

jen
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

4110 Posts

Posted - 2007-06-25 : 05:41:50
A quick one, has anyone tried applying sp2 on a cluster and in the middle of the patch, the other node failed to update and this lead to the failure of the patch installation?

I am trying to simulate now how to go about reinstallation of the sp2 without having to uninstall,re-add node member and install sql server on the failed node.

Any help very very much appreciated, been looking for weeks on how to do this as fast as possible.

TIA

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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2007-06-25 : 12:49:57
I'm pretty much in the same boat right now. We've got one node that didn't get sp2 installed correctly. I've got an open case with MS on it. I didn't even realize we had a problem as I never got any errors during the sp2 or GDR2 installations. The problem appeared when @@VERSION showed a lower version number for one particular instance (out of 11) and only when it was on this one particular node (out of 4). He doesn't think the problem is with the instance but rather with the node.

I believe the MS engineer is going to have us evict the problematic node, apply sp2, then add the node back in. But I'm requesting detailed steps for me to follow and those steps have taken him over a week already to write. He's trying to duplicate our environment and test things out.

Tara Kizer
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/
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jen
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

4110 Posts

Posted - 2007-06-26 : 08:06:04
Personally, right now, I am not very confident about M$ $upport. Bad support experience from them.


If you didn't get the error then I guess you just need to apply the patch on that node then... Have you tried re-applying it?

If not, I can provide the steps I did on our test cluster. And stuff to verify.

HTH

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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2007-06-26 : 11:39:35
We've reapplied both sp2 and GDR2 probably a dozen times. We've paused the node and applied it. We've rebooted all nodes. We've done all sorts of things with no luck.

I do see the errors now though. It's just that the first sp2 and GDR2 update did not show any errors. It's not until I saw the @@VERSION discrepancy and then reran them that I began seeing errors.

Tara Kizer
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/
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nr
SQLTeam MVY

12543 Posts

Posted - 2007-06-26 : 12:26:52
Have you started charging MS for your consultancy time yet?


==========================================
Cursors are useful if you don't know sql.
DTS can be used in a similar way.
Beer is not cold and it isn't fizzy.
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2007-06-26 : 12:35:14
quote:
Originally posted by nr

Have you started charging MS for your consultancy time yet?






Tara Kizer
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/
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jen
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

4110 Posts

Posted - 2007-06-27 : 03:03:45
no need for eviction then
uninstallation of the instance then reinstalling it will do the trick





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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2007-06-27 : 12:56:00
We do not have the luxury of being able to uninstall the instance. We can't afford the downtime. The instance is working, so this is a lowish priority for us. It just shows a lower version that it should.

We are told that the problem is not with the instance though and that the problem is on one of the nodes. So I don't think uninstalling would help. I should check with the other DBA who is handling this case to see where the engineer is at on it.

Tara Kizer
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/
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seethem
Starting Member

46 Posts

Posted - 2007-10-29 : 22:06:21
Although, it is roughly 5 months ago, has there been a resolution Tara?
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2007-10-31 : 14:29:08
No. I haven't found the time to work on it.

Tara Kizer
Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/
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penumatsa
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

289 Posts

Posted - 2007-11-07 : 12:16:07
I found myself in the same situation last month. I have a SQL Server 2005 3 node cluster and applied SP2. The SP was applied to only 2 nodes. All you need to do is to make sure that there are no active connections on any of the nodes. You then need to bring all the resources on to the node that the SP2 was not applied and then the SP2 installation. The installation procedure will check the binaries for all the nodes and then will apply the SP2 to the node that was not successfully patched. I did this and it worked for me. By the way, the client i work for has Support from Microsoft and i got help from them.

Jen, may be you had bad support from them, but that does not mean that it will be same for all the others. I call them if i have a production problem and i havent had any bad experience. In fact they are pretty good.

Hope this helps. Good luck

suresh penumatsa
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2007-11-07 : 13:19:05
penumatsa,

That did not work for us. I tried all of that and yet the one instance isn't showing the correct version.

And we also got support from MS on this issue. We are a premier customer of MS. I open cases with them all of the time.

Tara Kizer
Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/
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penumatsa
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

289 Posts

Posted - 2007-11-07 : 13:37:51
Tara,

We are a Premier Customer of MS and we have support too. I followed the steps that MS asked me to do and it worked.

suresh penumatsa
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2007-11-07 : 13:46:22
But it didn't for us. So obviously our problems are not the same.

Tara Kizer
Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/
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jen
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

4110 Posts

Posted - 2007-12-12 : 01:55:41
I finally found out the cause of our problem with different patch level and resolved it...

The cluster log, @@version on each nodes and when failing over to other nodes showed that failure to install sp2 actually rolled everything back to sp1...

The difference in patch level was due to the fact that when I installed sp2 on the last node, the other nodes were online and the groups were distributed on them...

The solution was to check the versions on all the instances when they're on the last node... then apply the minimum patch going up to gdr2...

Now all of them are on the same level

HTH

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