SharePoint 2013 Patch (Service

Pack-CU-Hotfix) Installation Guide

- Step by Step
So you want to maintain your SharePoint environment healthy, secure, stable
and up to date by installing latest patches? Well, this article walks through
the various steps involved in installing patches for your SharePoint 2013
environment.
SharePoint 2013 patching best practices
before proceeding, lets consider some of the best practices for SharePoint
2013 patching. I would strongly recommend patching your development/test
SharePoint farms first before proceeding with the production environment.
Make sure Dev/Test environments are thoroughly tested, all custom/thirdparty components are fully functional. Watch those environments, Identify
and address common issues and then schedule the maintenance window for
your SharePoint 2013 production farm.
Always, Its a good idea to stay one CU behind the current release (or 3 to 6
Months behind latest patch) for production environments to avoid any
potential issues that may be introduced by a new CU. Simply installing the
latest updates is not a best practice and may put your environment at risk.
Take snapshot backups of your SharePoint servers before applying updates.
(That's why I'm a big fan of SharePoint server virtualization!). This will help
when things dont go right.
Downtime Mitigation: If you have a TEST environment (or call it QA/PreProduction) closer to production, you can backup-restore SharePoint content
databases, make them read-only, change the publishing servers to point
TEST farm as Production farm during this maintenance window. Keep your
user community aware of this maintenance window. Plan and send out a
proper e-mail communication about the scheduled maintenance. SharePoint
2013 provides an excellent way SharePoint 2013 Maintenance Window
Notifications
Information: It is no longer required to install the SharePoint Foundation patches before proceeding with
SharePoint Server patches.

SharePoint 2013 patch procedure

at high level, SharePoint 2013 patching process is done as follows:
1. Get your current farm patch level

2. Download SharePoint 2013 service pack/CU/Hot-fix

3. Install binaries on SharePoint Servers
4. Run the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard
5. Verify the updated build number of your SharePoint farm.
Step 1: Get SharePoint 2013 Patch Level
There are many ways to find SharePoint build numbers including PowerShell
(more info: How to find SharePoint Farm Build Version Number/Patch
Level ). Here is the easiest way to find SharePoint patch level:

Go to your SharePoint 20103 Central Administration site.

From the Central Administration, navigate to System Settings >>

Manage Servers in this Farm

From the Servers in this Farm page, under the Farm information
section, you will see the SharePoint Farm Build Version.

To match the build number with SharePoint 2013 patch, use Todd Klindt's
blog: http://www.toddklindt.com/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=346
Step 2: SharePoint 2013 patch download

To start with SharePoint 2013 patching, We must download the relevant

patches first!. The major difference in downloading patches for SharePoint
2013 and its previous versions is: You don't have to download and install
patches for both SharePoint Foundation and SharePoint Server, if you are
running with SharePoint 2013 server. You can just download and install
SharePoint Server patch alone!!
To download SharePoint 2013 service packs, hot-fixes and cumulative
updates(CU), head on to Microsoft SharePoint updates
site: http://technet.microsoft.com/library/dn789211(v=office.14)

You have to download the relevant patch depending on your SharePoint

environment version/edition and patch level.
Best practice: Download all patches to a network location so that you do not have to download for every
server in the farm!

Step 3: Install SharePoint patch Binaries

The next step is to install service pack/patches to all SharePoint servers
(except the database server). You can start with SharePoint App Server(s)
that host Central Administration first.

Browse to the location where you downloaded patches.

Start the patching process by double clicking the installers (you may
have to extract the downloaded binaries!). Accept the license
agreement and click on "Continue".

You should see the installation progress window. You may asked to
reboot the server to complete patch installation.

Wait for the installation is complete message.

Install Patches on All other servers in the Farm:

Critical: You must install any patch on every server in your SharePoint farm including WFE and App
servers. SharePoint 2013 Products Configuration Wizard is good enough to detect and prevent you from
proceeding, If you try to run SharePoint 2013 Products Configuration Wizard without installing binaries on
all servers.

Install all other required binaries before proceeding with the next step.
Step 4: Run SharePoint 2013 Products Configuration Wizard
once binaries are installed on all SharePoint servers, the next step is run
SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard.

Go to start >> Search "SharePoint products configuration wizard" and

run PSConfig wizard as administrator. Click on Next to continue.

You will get a warning message saying few services will be restarted
during this upgrade process. Click Yes and then Click Next

SharePoint products configuration wizard will run through the

upgrade process. Wait for the wizard to complete.

When the wizard is completed, click Finish.

Repeat this patch procedures in rest your SharePoint Servers in the farm.
Run SharePoint 2013 Products Configuration Wizard ONE Server at a
time:
We have to run SharePoint 2013 products configuration wizard in all other
servers. Although SharePoint patch installation can happen simultaneously, I
would suggest you run SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard only on
ONE sever at a time! Start from App Server which hosts central admin, Once
its completed move on to other app servers and then SharePoint web front
ends. SharePoint 2013 patching process may take about 30 minutes on each
server.
If you try to run the wizard simultaneously, You'll get to see SharePoint 2013
places a lock until the configuration gets completed on the other server
already running the wizard.

Step 5: Verify Installation for SharePoint 2013 Service Pack:

We have successfully installed patches in our SharePoint 2013 environment.
To verify patching and make sure installation is successful lets check the
farm's build number. There are many ways to find SharePoint build number
(more info: How to find SharePoint Farm Build Version Number/Patch
Level ). Here is the easiest one:

Go to your SharePoint 20103 Central Administration site.

From the Central Administration, navigate to System Settings >>

Manage Servers in this Farm

From the Servers in this Farm page, under the Farm information
section, you will see the Configuration Database Version.

Make sure your new build number is matching with the patch your have just
installed. Also, check "Manage Servers in this Farm" page in Central
administration. This page will also tell you if you need to run the SharePoint
Products Configuration Wizard on a server to complete the update process.
Make sure every server in your SharePoint farm is upgraded and displays
status as "No Action Required".

SharePoint 2013 patch status page:

You can check the patch status on each and every individual server with
"Manage patch status page" (Central Administration >> Upgrade and
Migration >> Check product and patch installation status.

"Check upgrade status" page gives insights on detailed upgrade status

information.

Don't just stop by SharePoint 2013 service pack installation. But apply Windows Server OS patches and
SQL Server patches on regular maintenance windows.

SharePoint 2013 Service installation failed?

In case of failure, review the error log presented to determine the source .
Simply re-running the products configuration wizard worked for me any
times! or you may have to run psconfig command instead of running the
wizard.
psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait
or try:
PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd
applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures
What is the difference between service pack, Cumulative updates
and hot fixes (or patches)?

Hotfix/patch is a update addressing a specific problem/bug/security

issue. On Demand - normally not for everyone, you should only apply
the patch if you're having the specific problem it addresses. Microsoft
publishes a corresponding KB article for every hotfix that is released
for every Microsoft product.

Cumulative Updates - As their name suggest, they are cumulative

in content so they include a collection previously released hotfixes to
date. Hotfixes and CUs are not always publicly released. You'll get a
link to download these hotfixes and CUs on requesting via Microsoft
site.

Service pack is a collection of CUs (and patches). It rolls together all

patches that have come along over a given period of time. - Usually
contains new features and available to public.

Every Hotfix, CU, Service pack you install, will increment the version/build
number of your SharePoint Farm.
Last but not least: Its a good idea to have a maintenance page during
scheduled down times in SharePoint: Maintenance Page for SharePoint Quick way to Implement

Read more: http://www.sharepointdiary.com/2015/01/sharepoint2013-patch-installation-guide.html#ixzz469ahKrDm