SharePoint Updates

Do not install SharePoint updates just for doing it.

In these days with a lot of devices running on software, people have grown a habit to clicking the update button on a monthly basis, everything from the PC/Smartphone to the TV. And I know from my own experience how easy it is to just install an update on a device without even thinking over what the update actually does. Because you expect it will do something good and magically make it better somehow.

In an enterprise environment this is not always true, there are so many different elements playing together. And sometimes the smallest change can break the servers. 

That’s why you should ask yourself some questions before installing updates:

• Is there something wrong with my current Farm?
• Does the update fix critical errors concerning services and features you use?
• Do you need the new Features added?

If the answer to these questions are no, you probably shouldn’t install them at all. Why risk breaking a perfectly healthy SharePoint farm.

If you do need the updates, you should always test the update in a staging/testing environment that is close to a clone of your production environment before rolling it out on the production servers.  It’s easy to blame Microsoft for releasing updates that could break a farm, but they simple can’t test it for everything, there is so many different configurations, 3^rd party code and integrations on the various farms out there.  

If you read the e-mail sent from Microsoft when requesting updates you'll notice they do mention this.

All I'm saying is that you should be careful with updates, they could potentially do more harm than good to your farm.