As some of you may be aware, Microsoft has released some important performance and stability updates to both SQL Server 2008 R2 (CU9) and SQL Server 2012 SP1 (CU7) via the cumulative updates release vehicle in the last couple of months.

As I raised IT tickets for their download and installation on our development servers, someone from the team asked me a question:

SQL Server CUs are not part of the Microsoft update that downloads patches on “patch Tuesday”. How do you know when Microsoft releases cumulative updates for download?

The answer is quite simple – Microsoft publicly announces the availability of the CUs on their website!

If you want to remain up-to-date with the latest of cumulative patches, please feel free to visit the following pages every now and then:

• The SQL Server 2008 R2 builds that were released after SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2 was released [Link]
• The SQL Server 2012 builds that were released after SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 was released [Link]

Please note that as soon as a service pack is released, subsequent CUs will be listed on a new page. Hence, a new page will be available if and when SQL Server 2012 SP2 will be released. This is because of Microsoft’s patch naming strategy which will make the next CU to be SQL 2012 SP2 CU1.

Finally, if you ever misplace these links just type the following in your favourite search engine (it has always worked for me!) – “List of SQL Server 2012 SP1 cumulative updates” (update the string to have the required SQL Server version and patch level as necessary).

Further Reading:

• Naming schema for Microsoft SQL Server software update packages [Link]

Until we meet next time,

Be courteous. Drive responsibly.