SharePoint 2010 - Cumulative Updates Information

In this chapter we learn about Cumulative Updates. Cumulative Updates are important while developing & deploying SharePoint solutions.

What are Cumulative Updates?

Microsoft periodically releases software updates for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010. It is important to understand what these updates are and how to deploy them to servers or server farms.

In short Cumulative Update contains:

• Hotfixes since the release
• Support Issues being addressed since release

It is recommended that you install the latest update to ensure the full functionality of SharePoint with hotfixes. The update file will have the extension msp. Depending on your SharePoint edition (Foundation, Standard, Enterprise) choose the Foundation or Server version of update.

Which is the right version of Update?

As time goes by new updates are released by Microsoft. You have to download and install the latest version of update.

The latest version can be downloaded from the following location:

http://tinyurl.com/sp2010-cu

The link should take you to the Technet site of Microsoft.



Downloading the Update

Scrolling down in the preceding page you will see the Update releases as shown below:



Click on the KB link to download the appropriate package. It will lead you to the next page where the update information is available. You can get the information of what the fixes are and the scenario included in the update.



Click on the Hotfix Download Available button to continue to get the following page.



Enter your details and on submitting, the update will be emailed to you within a few seconds.

How to find the Patch Information of your SharePoint?

In the case of SharePoint 2007:

• Site Actions > Site Settings revealed the version information

For SharePoint 2010 you can use Central Administration web application for the purpose:

• Central Administration > Upgrade and Migration > Check product and patch..

On clicking the preceding link you will see the patch information as shown below:



The top row shows the latest Version installed.

References

http://tinyurl.com/sp2010-cui
http://tinyurl.com/sp2010-cu-learn

Summary

In this article we have gone through the Cumulative Update information of SharePoint 2010. In the real world scenarios, installing the latest Cumulative Update should save much of the development & debugging time.