Edit 3/2/2015 - This has been changed, please read SharePoint Server Patches Are No Longer Published in Windows Update.
Since Microsoft has started pushing out SharePoint patches in Windows Update there has been a lot of confusion from SharePoint Admins about how all this will work. Fear not, intrepid blog readers, we’ll get to the bottom of it. In this blog post I’ll show you how to verify that Windows Update will update SharePoint, in case that’s the way you roll.
We start out with a SharePoint 2013 server, running on Windows 2012. It is not set to allow Windows Update to patch SharePoint, or any other applications for that matter. It is set to “Download Only” for OS patches. When I open up Windows Update (Win + R > wuapp) this is what I see:
67 important patches, 66 of which are itching to be installed. Here is the list:
Notice that it’s all OS patches. If we go back to the first Windows Update screen there is an innocent looking link at the bottom, “Get updates for other Microsoft products. Find out more.” This is the setting that controls whether SharePoint, and other Microsoft products, is updated with Windows Update. Let’s click it. I like clicking.
Click the Agree box and then Next.
I want to continue to use my Current Settings, which are “Download Only, don’t install.”
If all goes well then you’ll get this page.
Now go back to Windows Update and have it check for updates. Remember we had 67 before, so 67 is the number to beat.
Things are looking up.
Now there 84 Important patches and a couple of optional updates thrown in for good measure. Let’s see what they are.
There they are, the patches inside of the February 2015 CUs. They are checked, so if we had Windows Updates set to automatically install, they would be. Also note right above it there is a SQL Service Pack trying to sneak in. While I’m a SharePoint guy, I’m sure SQL doesn’t like getting updated via Windows Update either. So make sure you look around in here and understand what is going to be patched now.
Let’s go ahead and click Install and get SharePoint up to date.
There’s the pudding with the proof right in it. SharePoint should continue to work just fine as your servers update themselves. You will need to run the Config Wizard (psconfig) on all of the servers after they’re all patched. Also note that the SharePoint Server patches are in the Office 2013 group in Windows Update. This is the same group that contains the Office 2013 Clients like Word and Excel. If you’re running WSUS make sure you have a separate computer group for your SharePoint servers. You probably do want to push the Office 2013 client updates to your workstations, but you probably don’t want to push them out to SharePoint servers quite as aggressively.
I hope that clears up some of the confusion over the recent change to SharePoint patching. If you have any questions or comments, leave them in the comment box below.
tk
ShortURL: http://www.toddklindt.com/EnableSharePointPatchesInWu
Edit 3/2/2015 - This has been changed, please read SharePoint Server Patches Are No Longer Published in Windows Update.