SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3, Service Pack 3a, or Service Pack 4 pre-installation checklist for SQL Server 2000 virtual server for failover clustering

This article lists an overview of the tasks that you must perform before you install SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3), SQL Server 2000 SP3a, or SQL Server 2000 SP4 on a SQL Server 2000 virtual server for failover clustering.

Because most of the changes introduced in SQL Server 2000 SP3a are related to setup, you do not have to apply SQL Server 2000 SP3a to instances of SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server Desktop Engine (also known as MSDE 2000) that have already been upgraded to SQL Server 2000 SP3.

However, if you have instances that have not been upgraded to SQL Server 2000 SP3, you must upgrade those instances directly to SQL Server 2000 SP3a instead of SQL Server 2000 SP3. If you have any copies of the SQL Server 2000 SP3 download files that you were planning to use for future upgrades, you must delete those copies and use either the SQL Server 2000 SP3a download files or the SQL Server 2000 SP3a CD-ROM instead.

For applications that distribute and install MSDE 2000, you must install SQL Server 2000 SP3a instead of SQL Server 2000 SP3.

While you can apply SQL Server 2000 SP3a to instances of SQL Server 2000 SP3 or MSDE 2000 SP3, doing so has little effect on those instances. For more information about SQL Server 2000 SP3a, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

SQL Server 2000 SP3 or SQL Server 2000 SP3a

Before you install SQL Server 2000 SP3 or SP3a on a SQL Server 2000 virtual server, Microsoft recommends that you complete the following:

• Make sure that you have a recent backup of your system and user databases, and your full- text catalogs. Verify that they are current and accurate before you continue.
• Review the Readme.htm file, and note any areas that might affect your production environment. If you find something that might affect your production environment, make sure you test it before you continue.
• Stop all monitoring software services such as Microsoft Operation Manager (MOM), and any third-party products that provide similar functionality. Microsoft recommends that this type of software be set for manual startup and that you restart the servers before you install SQL Server 2000 SP3 or SP3a.
• Verify all the resources in the SQL Server group that contain the instance of SQL Server. Use the Cluster Administrator to test whether the failover of the instance of SQL Server that is being upgraded is online from either node. Note the resource states of all the resources in the SQL Server group that contain the instance of SQL Server that you are upgrading.
• Verify that there are no dependencies other than those created by the SQL Server setup on any SQL Server cluster resources. Resources such as file shares, FTP servers, and Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) servers must always have a unique network name and an IP address resource. You must remove any such non-default dependencies before you install SQL Server 2000 SP3 or SP3a. No dependencies other than those supplied by the SQL Server setup must be used, except to validate whether SQL Server is online and available for the client application.
• While performing the cluster portion of SQL Server 2000 SP3 or SP3a, the setup will reset all cluster resources to the default properties for all resources in the group, whether they are related to SQL Server or not. Make sure to note all settings before you install SQL Server 2000 SP3 or SP3a. For more information about clustered SQL Server, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
  
  254321  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/254321/ ) Clustered SQL Server do's, don'ts, and basic warnings

If you do not perform these checks successfully, the installation will not be successful. Here are some reasons why the installations may not be successful:

• While performing the cluster portion setup, the SQL Server 2000 SP3 and SP3a installation program will reset the properties of all resources in the SQL Server group back to the default settings.
• The cluster portion setup of SQL Server 2000 SP3 or SP3a installation starts all resources in the SQL Server group whether they are related to SQL Server 2000. If any resource in this group cannot be brought online or fails during setup, the installation will not be successful even if the resource is not directly related to SQL Server.

SQL Server 2000 SP4

Before you install SQL Server 2000 SP4 on a SQL Server 2000 virtual server, we recommend that you complete the following.

Note SQL Server 2000 SP4 is not supported on Microsoft Windows NT 4.0. SQL Server 2000 SP4, 32-bit only, is supported on x64 clusters that are running 32-bit applications in a Windows in Windows 64 (WOW) mode and on IA-64-based servers.

• Make sure that you have a recent backup of your system database, your user databases, and your full- text catalogs. Make sure that they are current and accurate before you continue.
• Review the Readme.htm file, and note any areas that might affect your production environment. If you find something that might affect your production environment, make sure that you test it before you continue.
• Stop all monitoring software services, such as Microsoft Operation Manager (MOM), and any third-party products that provide similar functionality. We recommend that this type of software be set for manual startup and that you restart the servers before you install SQL Server 2000 SP4.

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: