After the SQL 2014 SP1 mess, I thought, “How are people with a real job supposed to keep up with updates?”
Go try to find the most recent SQL Server service packs and cumulative updates on Microsoft.com. It’s miserable – they’re scattered all over the place. Eventually, a lot of us started relying on SQLServerBuilds.blogspot.com, which is cool, but I have no idea who maintains it, and there’s no way to subscribe to updates there whenever a new patch comes out.
And then just try to figure out when support for a version ends – that’s even worse.
So I built SQLServerUpdates.com:
SQLServerUpdates.com
Does what it says on the tin, and you can subscribe via RSS or email as well. Hope that helps!
51 Comments. Leave new
This is awesome! Thank you so much!
Wooooooooooooooooo-hoooooooooooooooooooo! This rules!
Hahaha, thanks!
This is great, thank you for the effort of putting this together.
On the same topic – also worth mentioning – info maintained by SQL Sentry team (Aaron Bertrand I guess), e.g. http://blogs.sqlsentry.com/team-posts/latest-builds-sql-server-2012/ and http://blogs.sqlsentry.com/team-posts/latest-builds-sql-server-2014/
Nice one Brent – one page tells me all I need 🙂
Totally Awesome.
Thank you for all your help and expertize for the SQL Community.
Why can’t MS make tracking updates this simple.
Wow. Thank you so much. Brent Ozar Unlimited …….. Where DBAs find answers 🙂
What would I do without you guys…
Thank you so much!!!!! Everything that you do is so helpful.
I don’t remember where I found it but I have an RSS Feed named “Microsoft SQL Server Release Services” which pops out a notice every week or so announcing a CU updating a previous announcement.
The majority of the posts are from “SQL Server Engineering Team” but there are many from individuals also.
It does not have a list of the latest but at least it lets you know to look 😉
Thanks for collating it all in one place.
Very awesome, Brent. Thank you!!
You need a cool favicon of a green arrow pointing up on top of a yellow/silver database symbol.
Great idea and nice work..
Thanks Brent.
Nice work, thanks.
You’re welcome folks! Glad I could help.
Adding a column for the release date would be nice
Click on the Other Updates links and you can see more detail including the release dates. Enjoy!
Woo-hoo. Finally something to subscribe for the updates. Thank you
Thanks for RSS. Makes it easy.
As someone whose job description includes “…and manage SQL Server,” this is huge! Thank you!
Absolutely brilliant site. Thanks Brent!
Nice work brent. It is really helpful. Thank You!
Good innovation Brent. Why oh why don’t MS make it as easy? Maybe they think that we all use Microsoft Update.
Just a minor niggle: shouldn’t the entry for SQL 2005 say ‘SP4 plus CU3 plus MS11-049 (or MS12-070 if you’re running SSRS)’?
It’s one thing to ignore functional hotfixes until they’re rolled up into a CU or SP. But it’s quite something else to ignore security hotfixes.
Dr S – thanks, glad you liked it. I gotta draw the line somewhere, though, and I draw it at SPs and CUs. It’s too hard to keep up with hotfixes at this scale. I do agree that it’s important, but rather than coming after me, I’d suggest going after Microsoft to make this process easier. 😉
Nice work
Great work, very handy, it would be great if the Windows equivalent was with it.
Shane – great idea! You should totally take it and run with it – set up a site to list the Windows updates.
What no SQL Server 2000 updates 🙂
In all seriousness it might be good to have the last ever patch available for those out of extended support editions.
Think of the poor souls who are stuck on it and may not realise what they can patch up to.
Richard – unsupported means unsupported. 😉
It would be great if you had an easy/clean way to show which CUs are rolled up into an SP.
2014 SP1 rolls up CU1-5. If you’re running CU6 or CU7, then SP1 is arguably not the “latest release”. Being able to see the branch-point might be helpful.
Sure, there are only a few SPs in the lifecycle of any given version, but it’s a potentially confusing point if you don’t know enough to click through to the article to check.
Andy – I thought a lot about that, but I went with the most *recent* SP being the best. If you don’t get the chance to patch very often – like, say, once a year – then you probably want to be on a SP rather than an earlier CU because the SP has a longer support lifespan.
Yea, I totally get it. I’m wondering if some parenthetical note with that CU it’s based on could fit without looking cluttered. Even if it’s just on the detail page…
We’re usually just a few CUs behind, so it’s always a question on my mind when an SP comes out.
Brent, IMHO the page should include just a note in the Cumulative Update column for the Service Packs
For 2014:
SP CU
SP1 Up to CU5
CU7….
For 2012:
SP2 Up to CU9
CU16…..
That way if someone finds an SQL Server 11.0.3492, aka SP1-CU16 and “wants” to upgrade to the latest SP, aka SP2, knows that it will lost many fixes if not apply the last CU of that SP.
Jorge – thanks, that’s a great idea, will keep it in mind.
Thank you sooo much!!!
Probably you already know this but there is something similar but without the additional info SQLServerUpdates.com has. However the updates on technet.microsoft.com are slow – SP1 for SQL 2014 is still “N/A” although the corrected SP1 came out several days ago. There is also link to the product lifecycle but you have to spend more time if you want to find that information:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/ff803383.aspx
I forgot to mention – you can subscribe for updates and news related to SQL Server on the same page. The link is:
http://sxp.microsoft.com/Feeds/msdntn/sql_server_update_center
Ivan – right, exactly, as I said in the post, I wanted something that had all of this data in one place, kept up to date. Thanks though!
Ever heard of http://www.changedetection.com ? this will give you an email alert in case a webpage changes. I’m using this free service to check sqlserverbuilds (and a lot of other webpages)
Yeah, I’ve had rough results with that. My preferred one is WatchThatPage.com.
Very nice, thanks!
I’m also using “Microsoft SQL Server Release Services”, but this is much nicer.
Fantastic!
The only thing missing now is a direct link to the release notes for each release (yes I’m lazy).
Thanks for creating this!
Regards
Marius
Thanks Brent for the site. It’d be further useful to rename the last column to ‘Extended Support Ends’, as well as adding a new column for ‘Mainstream Support Ends’.
Regards,
Othman
You’re welcome, glad you like it. In the interest of keeping things simple, I’m not showing the difference between mainstream and extended. Gotta draw the line somewhere to keep things on a page. Enjoy!
Brent,
Thanks for the site! I have to simply echo some others in that the SP1 for 2014 can be misleading – there should be either a footnote that it doesn’t include the latest CU, or a warning, etc. I guess buyer beware – we should all be reading the details before blindly using.
In the past I have frequented here: http://sqlserverbuilds.blogspot.com/, plus the update center in Microsoft for sql server.
Regards,
John
How about: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlreleaseservices/
I think it shows all the info you need related to SP’s and CU’s.
As always, thank you for all you and your team do. This is another example of helping the masses.
Thank you!
Hi,
If I have a SQL Server 2014 RTM CU 11 and install SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1, the SP installation does a rollback in all CU content and install all SP1 stuff or it just run “differential” changes?
Thanks.
Rodrigo – Service Packs and Cumulative Updates don’t add/remove lines of code. They replace files. So if you apply SP1, you get SP1.
So, how system objects are modified though a service pack or C.U?
I think they aren’t located in files (not all).
Rodrigo – sure, they are. Check out the resource database: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190940.aspx
(It should probably go without saying that it’s hidden for a reason – you don’t want to be playing around with that.)
Thank you for clarification