I know this topic has been covered many times, but i can't find the
answer anywhere. I've been through the readme, books online and all
through the forums, but can someone tell me if the service pack
install needs exclusive access to the databases to complete in a
cluster install? I know that the SQL services need to be online and
that i must run it from the owning node, but what about access to the
database? Will my applications that access the databases need to be
taken offline so that the SP install can get exclusive access?

Service pack installation, including SP3a (use SP3a, not SP3 especially on a
cluster) will stop and start the SQL service during the install. It will
start SQL in exlusive mode for a short time while it runs SQL scripts. YOur
system will be unavailable to end users during the Service Pack install.
Plan for about 15 minutes or so of total downtime.

--
Geoff N. Hiten
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Senior Database Administrator
Careerbuilder.com


"Jeff Zavada" <jeff_zavada (AT) lord (DOT) com> wrote

A SQL Server SP does require that no users be connected to
the DB, since system databases are updated. And as Geoff
notes, a reboot is required at least for the first
installation (since it is done per instance). Since the
services are cycled at points, it is also not really a
good idea to chance fate anyway. All SQL Server updates
such as a SP or hotfix should be done without any users to
ensure a complete success.

Thanks for the info. it helps me out alot.

Jeff

"Allan Hirt" <allanh (AT) NOSPAMavanade (DOT) com> wrote