SP4 Experience

  • Thread starter Thread starter MJV
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M

MJV

Interested in hearing from anyone about their experience
after installing W2K Advanced Server SP4. In particular
any critical issues.

Thanks,
MJV
 
Have been running it since it came out on Adv Server, Regular Server, Pro
and had no issues whatsoever. These machine also run a variety of Back
Office Apps like SQL2k, Exchange 2k etc. It seems to be very solid.
 
Scott...Thanks for the feedback...MJV
-----Original Message-----
Have been running it since it came out on Adv Server, Regular Server, Pro
and had no issues whatsoever. These machine also run a variety of Back
Office Apps like SQL2k, Exchange 2k etc. It seems to be very solid.

--
Scott Harding
MCSE, MCSA, A+, Network+
Microsoft MVP - Windows NT Server




.
Click to expand...
 
I've had a similar experience to Scott. Deployed it hundreds of
workstations and tens of servers (including Advanced Server).

No issues.

Oli
 
In particular any critical issues.

Had 2 small issues -

1. Ran the SP via Term Services, but didn't go for the re-boot straight
after it completed - logged off and thought I'd re-boot it later when the
users were off the system. When I tried to logon on later via TS I couldn't
so had to power off/on. All fine after re-boot though.

2. Did something nasty to the Scheduled Tasks already set up so some file
transfers, backups etc would n't work. Got some advice from this list but
never got to the bottom of it so just shifted the Tasks to a 2003 box.

3. Er- that's it
 
Only time I've run into advice to not install it is when you are running
Citrix MetaFrame XP. There are numerous post SP4 fixes from Citrix and MS
that are supposed to fix things, but many of us are not willing to impact
production environments for the length of time it takes to identify and
resolve problems.
 
That's the only time you'd want to hold off installing a service pack. It's
also why having a test environment is a good idea, so you don't end up
testing on your production machines.

FWIW, I've installed SP4 on Citrix, but I'm not making use of its features
by any means.

Oli
 
As with any environment, many people will install SP4 on a Citrix server
with no problems. However, every consultant I've dealt with strongly
recommended against installing SP4 on a Citrix MF XP environment. In one
case I know of, the server had to be completely re-built..... I don't know
what the story is with the latest release of the software, though.

I agree 1000% with the test environment approach. We have one set up
ourselves. However, with environments like Citrix, it's hard to duplicate
the exact environment (# of users, printers, load balancing, hardware,
etc.). A development server lets you know that it won't cause an immediate
disaster, but you still have to cross your fingers...... ;-)
 
Two problems were discovered, one critical to the OS, one
critical to the support staff.
1) TCP option 1323 no longer worked under SP4, where
compensating for a slow (satellite) network. Result was
that a very small TCP window was created, and performance
was veerrrry slow. A bug fix was created, and that
problem was quickly resolved.
2) Hyperterminal "send text file" feature appears to no
longer work as it did pre-sp4. We use it to send a
configuration file to a com2 connnected cisco switch.
The com port or hyperterminal is no longer processing the
switch logon commands. If we manually logon, the rest of
the config commands are accepted. If we try to process
the file w/logon commands included, it does three tries,
and fails the logon attempt. After that, the
hyperterminal window shows no text at all, and appears in
a hung state until logoff can be achieved - either by
hardware reboot or using a com port analyzer to see
excactly where the problem occurred. This one is not
resolved yet.
 
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