SQL Server patching

SQL Server Patch Manager can apply (and remove) cumulative updates, service packs and hotfixes in parallel from multiple SQL Servers at a time.

SQL Server Patch Manager will automatically control failovers if patching server pairs where either Database Mirroring or Availability Groups are used.

Patching 3 SQL Server instances in less than 3 minutes

Patching of all SQL Servers in an organization using the SQL Server Patch Manager can usually be done within 10 minutes. This drastically reduces downtime compared to patching through solutions like SCCM.

SQL Server Patch Manager is located here:

\\PerformanceStoreServer\Tools\SQLServerPatchManager\SQLServerPatchManager.exe

A log of patched SQL Servers can be seen in the dbo.v_patch_log view or in the Patch log dashboard.

SQL Server Patch Manager can make a backup of the system database files before and/or after patching. This can be enabled in the “Options” menu.

The backed up system database files will be in the “DataRoot” directory (usually “C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\{Instance name}\MSSQL”) in the systemdb_yyyyMMdd_HHmmss.zip compressed file.

Note, the SQL Server Patch Manager is only supported on Windows platforms with support for WMI calls. WMI calls requires the Performance Store user to be a member of the local administrators group on the SQL Server.