What scenarios would result in bringing the cluster down/offline ? I mean..
in situations when you apply OS service packs/security patches or SQL Server
service packs.. To apply any of the above , is it as easy as fail over to
other node i.e secondary while you apply all the patches on one and fail it
back again from secondary to primary while you upgrade on secondary ?
Or do certain situations require you to bring the entire cluster down i.e
bringing the system offline.. Using SQL 2000

Hi Hassan,

SQL Server service packs and hotfixes are applied to both cluster nodes at
the same time. The service pack or hotfix installation may require that
SQL be restarted in single user mode to run scripts. This requires some
downtime.

OS level service packs and hotfixes are applied each node individually. So
you would apply them on node 1 while all the cluster resources were running
on node 2. Then you would move the resources back to node 1 and apply the
SP or hotfix to node 2. The cluster team recommends that you keep the
service pack level the same on both nodes, so you should do the upgrades
during the same downtime.


Regards,
Shirley
SQL Server Support

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