http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/1668/updating-the-passive-node-in-a-sql-server-2005cluster/ http://www.mssqltips.

com/sqlservertip/1554/sql-server-clustering-active-vs-passive/

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sqldatabaseengine/thread/77402ff0-38d4-4094a033-7576cee8653c/

What is proper procedure to install Service Pack 4 on Active/Active SQL server 2005 Cluster. Also, What is the procedure for installing the Service Pack 2 on Active/Active SQL Server 2008 Cluster. Thanks Shiju

Patching a cluster entails you log onto a node and run the installer, but it's not quite as simple as that. SQL Server 2005 patching and SQL Server 2008 patching are entirely different processes, so let's tackle them separately.

SQL Sever 2005 patches all nodes for an instance across the cluster. To start this process fail the instance, cluster, and MSDTC groups to the node you will run the installer from. The installer attempts to patch passive nodes of an instance and then finally patches the active node (the node hosting the Cluster and MSDTC services as well as the node you're running the patch from). Patching will cause a brief service restart so plan for that when you patch. One important note on SQL 2005 patching is you must NOT be logged into any node other the node you're running the patch from. If you are, there's a high likelihood the patch will fail.

SQL Server 2008 patches only the node you are running the patch on. You do not need to have the Cluster or MSDTC services or even the instance services running on the node at the time of the patch. However, when you fail the instance over to the newly patched node some update scripts may be applied to the system databases which could cause a brief connection outage, so again, plan for that.

The headache with SQL 2005 patching happens when a node is not patched properly. You may end up with patched binaries on only a subset of nodes in the cluster, so to ensure this isn't the case, I would recommend you run the following statement against each patched instance while it is hosted on each node in the cluster (e.g. run the script on instance one while hosted on NodeA, fail instance to NodeB rerun the script, etc.):

SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('productversion') AS Version, SERVERPROPERTY ('productlevel') AS [Service Pack], SERVERPROPERTY ('edition') AS Edition

If you find that the product level is not consistant across all the nodes, you will need to fool the 2005 patch installer into only patching the nodes that need updating. To do so, you will have to perform the following steps: 1. Fail Instance, Cluster, and MSDTC groups to an unpatched node 2. Remove any successfully patched nodes from failover candidates of the SQL Server Service of the instance group (do this using Cluster Admin tool) 3. Run the patch 4. After the patch installs successfully, add the Nodes removed in Step 2 back to the SQL Server Service of the Instance group Why do you need to do this? Well when the patch installer determines that not all nodes in the cluster are at the same patch level, a passive node operation will fail and will prevent you from moving forward with any further patching, so you need to fool the patch installer into only patching those nodes which need it, hence the steps above. There's a lot of idiosyncrasies with both, but hopefully I covered the important stuff for you. Good luck, John

http://blogs.technet.com/b/mdegre/archive/2010/01/16/apply-a-sql-server-2008-service-pack-orhotfix-to-a-failover-cluster-instance.aspx

Apply a service pack or hotfix SQL Server 2008 to a failover cluster instance

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Degremont Michel 16 Jan 2010 3:40 PM

Apply a service pack or patch SQL Server 2008 in a clustered environment Step 1 : Validation wizard Step 2 : Pre-check Step 3 : Installation of the first node Step 4 : Add a new node Step 5: Apply a service pack or hotfix on a SQL cluster

Installing Service Pack SQL Server 2008 in failover cluster is very different than the SQL Server 2005 cluster failover. With SQL Server 2005, when you start installing cluster service pack (or hotfix), it must be launched on the active node (node that hosts the instance). When installing the Setup will launch simultaneously "remote silence" on all passive nodes. All nodes in the cluster containing the SQL Server instance are updated in the same time. With SQL Server 2008, to reduce the downtime, we have revised the method of deployment. Now if you want to apply a service pack (or hotfix), you must install in first on the passive nodes. The passive nodes are updated before the active node. Therefore, for your instance SQL Server 2008 in failover cluster, you must follow the scenario below for the application of Service Pack, Cumulative Update or Hotfix : 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Apply the hotfix on pasive node N2 Reboot the passive node N2 Failover on SQL resource : the passive node become the active node Apply the hotfix on the passive node N1 Reboot the passive node N1

You can check the version of SQL server with the following query:
SELECT

SERVERPROPERTY('IsClustered') as _1_Means_Clustered , SERVERPROPERTY('Edition') as Edition , SERVERPROPERTY('ProductVersion') as Version , SERVERPROPERTY('ComputerNamePhysicalNetBIOS') as ActiveNode

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2011/05/27/10169261.aspx

SQL Server 2008 failover cluster rolling patch and service pack process http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958734 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958734

How to update or slipstream an installation of SQL Server 2008 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955392

http://networkadminkb.com/KB/a302/how-to-install-service-packs-tosql-2005-cluster.aspx How to install Service Packs to SQL 2005 Cluster

Author: NetworkAdminKB.com Created: 2010-05-23 Modified: 2010-08-09

Information: Use the procedure below to avoid common issues when installing service packs to SQL 2005 clusters.

1) Login to the Console on the target node a. RDP to the console is ok, but a standard RDP connection is not recommended. 2) Copy the Service Pack to a local drive on the target node 3) Move all instances to the target node a. You can only install on the Active Node. 4) Move the Cluster Resource to the target node 5) Move the MSDTC Resource to the target node 6) Verify all users are logged out from all other nodes (RDP and Console sessions) 7) Start the Service Pack install a. Use a domain account with admin rights to all servers. b. Ignore locked files 8) Reboot current server a. You should not need to perform the install on any other nodes, nor reboot them. The service pack will update the passive nodes first.

More Information: If you are adding an additional (ie: 3rd) node to an existing cluster you will need to move all SQL Instances to the new node then restrict the possible owners for the various SQL Server cluster resources to that single node. This will prevent a catch 22 situation where you cant patch the New Node because the Existing Nodes are already patched, and you cant re-patch Existing Nodes because (the Service Pack wont let you) various hotfixes have already been applied above the current service pack.

You can check service pack installation logs here. C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Setup Bootstrap\LOG\Hotfix

Common error messages encountered in this special situation Active Node Summary.txt No passive nodes were successfully patched Exit Code Returned: 11009

Passive Node Summary.txt Product instances were disqualified due to build version mismatch Exit Code Returned: 11203