Do I really Need to Upgrade to SQL Server 2014 SP2 ? -

Question

We have a Application upgrade to next version.

SQL Server 2014 is currently on SP1.

The upgrade pre-requisite is not necessarily SQL Server SP2.

But I feel and read the below link which says SQL Server 2014 has many fixes related to AOAG and some fix to SQL File stream.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/3171021/sql-server-2014-service-pack-2-release-information.

I am stuck up in below situation:

My Manager asked do we really need to upgrade to SP2 as it is not necessary for upgrade .

He is little worried as this might be involved in little risk as they are PRODUCTION servers.

But I am sure Microsoft released the SP2 for some intention as this help the SQL Server 2014 performance.

I want to convey the same and make them accept the feasibility to apply the SP2 for our PROD servers ?

So do I really need to apply SP2 and how can I make them understand it helps ?

Answer 1

Your manager will be concerned about possible regressions and new bugs in the service pack (rare, but it has happened in the past) or one of your applications relying on an undefined behaviour that is changed by SP2. These are valid concerns and it is not recommended that you upgrade in production without first at least reading all the official change documentation to make sure none of your applications are likely to be affected. Fully testing your application(s) against the upgrade in another environment is strongly recommended too.

If you have third party applications you might not have the product knowledge to perform the above checks/test, in which case you will need to discus the matter with the application vendor. Hopefully they can give you definitive word on whether they support their application(s) when used with SQL Server 2014sp2.

Do note that without SP2 SQL 2014 becomes officially unsupported in October according to the official lifecycle (https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/lifecycle/search?alpha=sql%202014) so you are going to want to install SP2 (or upgrade further) before then, meaning you can't avoid this effort completely.

The chance of significant problems between service packs is much lower than between full releases so many people fly by the seat of their pants and just upgrade to the latest service pack without testing. This attitude is somewhat too risky IMO.

Answer 2

Since you have completely adequate backups of your databases, updating to the "latest" SQL Server service pack is no risk at all.

If you don't have completely adequate backups of your databases, find out why.

If you do have backups, make sure that they actually are backups. Then go ahead.

On the other hand - if you are describing updating a third-party application that you bought, which runs on your SQL Server - maybe you shouldn't plan to update that and also install the SQL Server Service Pack on the same day.

Which update to do first, then, is up to you. I expect that the application has already been tested mainly on Service Pack 2 - unless the application update is also an old update.

Failing to update your SQL Server by service pack is just lazy. It's just a bug-fix release. But you do need to have backups and a back-out plan, just in case something goes wrong - not because there's any risk in the service pack itself, but because things do go wrong. Any time you reboot the server hardware operating system, it might just not start again. Hard disks fail like light bulbs, pop.

In the first couple of weeks of a Service Pack, too, problems may be and have been found - and in that case, the Service Pack is withdrawn from issue then updated to work correctly. So, don't install it on your important server just after its release. But now it is a long time since the release.