A couple of days ago the SharePoint 2010 Cumulative Update for August 2011 was released. Always a good time to see some things fixed and some things break. Installing a Cumulative Update is always a risky business, and you should only install them if you any experience problems that the CU resolves and only when you thoroughly tested it.

One CU to rule them all!

Without going into details about the content and fixes in the August 2011 CU there is one other thing that is of real interest - and that is how MIcrosoft has changed the packaging process for the Cumulative Updates. Since the release of SharePoint 2010 there has been talk and discussions about über-packages. That is Server Cumulative Packages that contains both the Server hotfixes as well as the Foundation hotfixes, which makes the update process a bit easier and faster - you only need to install one package. Up until now there has been mixed messages on the über-packages and caused some confusion. The recommendation has been that you need to install both SPF and SPS CU’s on a SPS installation and all three if you’re using Project Server.

Since yesterday (that’s when I noticed it at least) the SharePoint Updates page on MSDN has been updated with new information regarding this packaging with this:

The packaging of cumulative updates changed as of August 31, 2011. […] As a result of the new packaging, it is no longer necessary to install the SharePoint Foundation cumulative update and then install the SharePoint Server cumulative update.

It looks like we have a new guidance in town!This has been “promised” before and I hope that it will work as planned this time, only time will tell. For more history and information read Spencer Harbars post on the SP1 and June CU discussion.

What this essentially comes down to is that you only need to download one of these patches (links to August 2011 CU within parenthesis) from now on…

  • SharePoint Foundation 2010, contains SPF CU (KB253050)
  • SharePoint Server 2010, contains SPF + SPS CU (KB253048)
  • SharePoint Server 2010 with Project Server 2010, contains SPF + SPS + Project Server CU (KB253049)

This will save you a couple of minutes/hours downloading and you’ll save a few minutes installing multiple CU’s on each server.

Note: The correct version of this CU should be 14.0.6109.5002, if you were really quick you might have downloaded the 14.0.6109.5000 build.

But…there’s always a but. Please, please, please test all CU’s, SP’s, patches, hotfixes, shoes and whatever very thoroughly!