14 DAY TRIAL // At the start of April 2009, Microsoft made available for download the first service pack for SQL Server 2008. The end of this month will make the Redmond company's next move in the strategy designed to serve SP1 for the latest iteration of its data platform. In this regard, the software giant announced that a few days short of the May 2009, SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 would go live on Windows Update. However, even though it will be distributed through WU, Microsoft has no plans to also offer SP1 as an automatic upgrade to customers running the RTM release of SQL Server 2008.
“Starting on April 28th, service pack 1 for SQL Server 2008 will be posted to Microsoft Update. The update will patch any edition or whether the instance is clustered or a stand-alone instance. To obtain the update, you must opt into Microsoft Update and manually scan for the update. The service pack will not be delivered through automatic update,” revealed Peter Saddow, SQL Server program manager.
SQL Server 2008 is already available for manual download and installation. Microsoft is describing the service pack as nothing more than a collection of essential updates. In this regard, customers will notice that SP1 brings to the table a Roll-up of Cumulative Update 1 to 3, along with Quick Fix Engineering updates and additional resolves. In mid-April 2009, the Redmond company also made available for download cumulative update package 1 for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1.
“The SQL Server 2008 Service Pack updates an existing installation of all editions of SQL Server 2008 including SQL Server Express. The SQL Server 2008 Express (SQL Server Express) Service Pack installs new instances of SQL Server Express including the service pack or upgrades instances of SQL Server Express to the service pack. The SQL Server Express Service Pack can also be used to upgrade instances of Microsoft SQL Server Express 2005 or SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (also known as MSDE 2000) to SQL Server Express. Service packs are cumulative and include previously released service packs and hot fixes,” Microsoft revealed in the SQL Server 2008 SP1's release notes.
SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is available for download here.