Introduction

In this chapter we can learn about Cumulative Updates. Cumulative updates are important while developing and deploying SharePoint solutions.

What are Cumulative Updates?

Microsoft periodically releases software updates for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010. It is important to understand what these updates are and how to deploy them to servers or server farms.

In short Cumulative Update contains:

Hot fixes since the release
Support issues being addressed since release

It is recommended that you install the latest update to ensure full functionality of SharePoint with hotfixes. The update file will having the extension msp. Depending on your SharePoint edition (Foundation, Standard, Enterprise) choose the Foundation or Server version of update.

Which is the right version of Update?

As time goes by new updates are released by Microsoft. You have to download and install the latest version of update. The latest version can be downloaded from the following location: http://tinyurl.com/sp2010-cu

The link should take you to the Technet site of Microsoft.

Downloading the Update

Scrolling down in the above page you can see the Update releases as shown below:

Click on the KB link to download the appropriate package. It will lead you to the next page where the update information is available. You can get information on what are the fixes and scenario included in the update.

Click on the Hotfix Download Available button to continue to get the following page.

Enter your details and on submitting, the update will be emailed to you within a few seconds.

How to find the patch information of your SharePoint?

In the case of SharePoint 2007:

Site Actions > Site Settings revealed the version information

For SharePoint 2010 you can use Central Administration web application for the purpose:

Central Administration > Upgrade and Migration > Check product and patch.

On clicking the above link you can see the patch information as shown below:

The top row shows the latest version installed.

References

Summary

In this article we have gone through the Cumulative Update information on SharePoint 2010. In the real world scenarios, installing the latest Cumulative Update should save a lot of development and debugging time.

SharePoint 2010 Cumulative Updates Information