Sql Server 2014 update path advice

Question

I recently inherited a SQL Server 2014 installation and I'd like to install updates. The virtual machine runs Windows Server 2016 standard. The server has about 50+ databases with 400Gb of data. I'm a developer and don't have much DBA knowledge.

Current plan is to update SQL Server to 2014 SP3 (right now it's RTM). Are there any problems I should be aware of?

I do plan on trying it out on a non-production server first - but unfortunately can't get the same exact Windows version.

Is there some script or utility to healthcheck SQL Server installation? I doubt that manually running sql statements will be very thorough. I only found Brent Ozar's blitz so far.

Answer 1

You actually want to keep up to date on service packs in SQL < 2014 as you won't get support after awhile if you don't.

The support policy can be found here.

Generally installing Service Packs is safe but for any production system please make sure you have a strong backup model in place and hopefully a test environment to simulate all changes for production ahead of time to validate that they work.