Build to Build (B2B) Upgrade of the SharePoint environment – Part 1

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Applying Hot fixes, Cumulative updates (CU) or Service Packs (SP) for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 and then upgrading the databases is a very common scenario. We troubleshoot issues around these areas quite frequently at Microsoft GTSC. I have heard these questions several times from our customers “Which machine do I start running the psconfig wizard in my farm” and “Should we install both WSS and MOSS binaries” etc….

So, I am listing the simple instructions with some recommendations for B2B (Build to Build) Upgrade of the SharePoint environment in Part 1 of this blog post.

Here are the steps:

1. Take a Full SharePoint backup of the entire farm using Central Administration Site. For more information on taking Full backup from SharePoint level, see https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262946.aspx

Note: It is also recommended that you take frequent SQL level backups of the SharePoint databases as part of your disaster recovery plan.

2. On each machine on your farm, install the binaries (Hot fixes, Cumulative updates or Service Packs). In the end of the installation of binaries, you will be prompted to run the Configuration Wizard. Do not run the wizard at this stage.

Note: If you are running MOSS, make sure you install the binaries for both WSS and MOSS. I have seen several cases where people install only WSS update binaries and run the configuration wizard. This is not recommended. If your farm is running only on WSS, then install only WSS binaries.

3. Go to the machine in the farm where you have the Central Administration Site hosted. Run the “SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard”. When you initiate the Configuration process, you are shown a message box to run upgrade wizard on all servers in your farm. Click on OK button. Let the Wizard complete. This may take several minutes to several hours depending on the size and the content of the SharePoint databases.

4. Go to any other machine in the farm and run the “SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard”. If it prompts, click Ok and continue to let it finish.

Note: We can also upgrade using the command line tool. The command is as follows:
psconfig –cmd upgrade –inplace b2b –wait –force

5. Repeat the step 4 on all other machines in the farm one by one. If everything goes fine, the upgrade would be completed.

Hope this helps!

In the Part 2 of this blog, I will discuss some troubleshooting stuff related to B2B upgrade. Till then, have fun J

Cheers,

Pradeep