SP1 installation on many instances

  • Hi friends,

    We have a server with 5 SQL Server 2008 R2 instances installed on it. We wish to install SP1 on this particular server. I would like to know that should we install the service pack on all 5 instances in a single installation or should we install it one-by-one? Installing one-by-one means we will need to run the setup 5 times in order to install the service pack on all 5 instances.

    The reason why I am asking is when we installed SP1 on test server ( 3 instances in a single installation) we faced some issues with MSSQLSystemResource database on one of the instances & we were not able to start the SQL Server service.

    I'd created a thread for that problem also, you can go to that thread by clicking here.

    As always, any help/ideas are appreciated 🙂


    Sujeet Singh

  • Guys , please anyone , who has done this in past :cool:!!


    Sujeet Singh

  • you need to install SP1 on all instance.

    When you will run setup, it will ask the instance name.

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    Ashish

  • crazy4sql (1/31/2012)


    you need to install SP1 on all instance.

    When you will run setup, it will ask the instance name.

    Thanks for the reply Ashish. I understand when we install the Service Pack it asks us to select the instances that we want to upgrade, however, my question was something different 😉

    I wanted to know that did you too faced the same error (i.e. upgrade process didn't update the MSSQLSystemResource files on some instance & you were not able to restart the service) when you installed the SP on all the instance in a single installation??

    Thanks again :-)!


    Sujeet Singh

  • I wanted to know that did you too faced the same error (i.e. upgrade process didn't update the MSSQLSystemResource files on some instance & you were not able to restart the service) when you installed the SP on all the instance in a single installation??

    Thanks again :-)!

    for that its always suggested to take the file-copy backup of "mssqlsystemresource.ldf" and "mssqlsystemresource.mdf" so that if SP breaks, you can replace the resource database mdf and ldf with old set and can bring the sql back to its earlier stage.

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    Ashish

  • crazy4sql (1/31/2012)


    I wanted to know that did you too faced the same error (i.e. upgrade process didn't update the MSSQLSystemResource files on some instance & you were not able to restart the service) when you installed the SP on all the instance in a single installation??

    Thanks again :-)!

    for that its always suggested to take the file-copy backup of "mssqlsystemresource.ldf" and "mssqlsystemresource.mdf" so that if SP breaks, you can replace the resource database mdf and ldf with old set and can bring the sql back to its earlier stage.

    Thanks Ashish for pointing this out. Actuly, when I faced that issue I replaced the MSSQLSystemResource.MDF by copying it from another instance that was already updated with SP1. This way we were able to start the SQL Server successfully.

    I am not sure but I think if we will replace the MSSQLSystemResource files from old files, may be our SQL Server will be working in hybrid state as SQL Server dlls will be updated by SP1 but MSSQLSystemResource database will be of old version & apparently SERVERPROPERTY('ProductLevel') will report as RTM.


    Sujeet Singh

  • You should be able to install to all 5 instances at once.

    when I have had patching errors where the resource database has 'gone missing' it has been file in use type problems, so you should be sure ALL instances are quiesced before starting.

    As you have done before, if the only error you get is that there is a problem with the resource database, you can copy the files from another instance, as long as it is the exact same version. In the first line of the SQL errorlog it states the version it is coming up at, you want a resource database that matches that. You can confirm you have the correct one as the version of the resource database is listed a bit later in the errorlog as it is bought online.

    If you have to go backwards in versions, I would use add\remove programs to back out the patch on that instance only, and try again.

    It is definitely worth having, in fact essential, flat file backups of your resource database

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  • george sibbald (1/31/2012)


    You should be able to install to all 5 instances at once.

    when I have had patching errors where the resource database has 'gone missing' it has been file in use type problems, so you should be sure ALL instances are quiesced before starting.

    As you have done before, if the only error you get is that there is a problem with the resource database, you can copy the files from another instance, as long as it is the exact same version. In the first line of the SQL errorlog it states the version it is coming up at, you want a resource database that matches that. You can confirm you have the correct one as the version of the resource database is listed a bit later in the errorlog as it is bought online.

    If you have to go backwards in versions, I would use add\remove programs to back out the patch on that instance only, and try again.

    It is definitely worth having, in fact essential, flat file backups of your resource database

    Thanks George, that makes sense.


    Sujeet Singh

  • no probs.

    I think I should clarify what I mean by quiesced - make sure nothing or no-one else is trying to connect to the instance whilst you are patching it.

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  • george sibbald (1/31/2012)


    no probs.

    I think I should clarify what I mean by quiesced - make sure nothing or no-one else is trying to connect to the instance whilst you are patching it.

    Saw this word many times, written in SQL Server articles 😉 Although I had to go to google to know the meaning when I saw it first time :hehe:


    Sujeet Singh

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