Updating Exchange 2010 to SP3

Question

Hi,
I'm going to install Sp3 on my Exchange 2010 server today. I've already done the install on my test system and it went fine.
I have a question though. I am running a DAG. The docs I find online all say to move the databases to another node when running the update. Is this solely to keep users up and running or is it necessary to to in order for the upgrade to run properly.
I ran the upgrade on TEST without moving databases around and it seems to have worked fine (only a few users on my TEST system though).
Thanks,
Nacht

Answer 1

If you are running a DAG, your databases would automatically fail over when the system is rebooted. However, if you don't want any surprises, it's common practice to move everything over prior to the patching, then move back afterward. Here's a typical patching
process:
Mailbox Server patching procedures (patch DR Servers first, then Mailbox Servers last):
Install update on DR servers and reboot
On the A node in the primary site, open EMS and run this command to check the status of indexes:
Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus | Fl name, contentindexstate
It should look like this for all databases:
Name             
: DB01\ServerA
ContentIndexState : Healthy
If the content index state is not healthy, run this command for each database that isn't healthy:
Update-MailboxDatabaseCopy "DB01\ServerA" -CatalogOnly
Repeat this check on the B node for the primary site, and if all is healthy, proceed to next step
On the A node in the primary site, open EMS and move active mailbox databases to the B node:
Move-ActiveMailboxDatabase -Server ServerA -ActivateOnServer ServerB -MountDialOverride:none -confirm:$false
Refresh EMC and select each DB moved, then check copy status, copy queue length and replay queue length (everything should be healthy or mounted and all queues should be at
zero)
Once databases are verified running on the B node, install patch/update on A node and reboot
Check event logs and services on the A node once it's back online
On the B node, open EMS and move all databases from B to A
Open or Refresh EMC and select each DB moved, then check copy status and queues
Once databases are verified running on the A node, install patch/update on the B node and reboot
Check event logs and services on the B node once it's back online
On the A node, open EMS and browse to
D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Scripts> and run this script to automatically put all databases on A node that have an activation preference of 1 on that server and leave all databases
on the B node that have an activation preference of 1 for that node
.\RedistributeActiveDatabases.ps1 -DagName DAG1 -BalanceDbsByActivationPreference -confirm:$false
Check Failover Cluster Manager:
On one of the mailbox servers, go to Start > Failover Cluster Manager, expand the DAG, then click on DAG1.contoso.local
Current Host Server (which server holds the Primary Active Manager role) should be either the A or B node. If it is the DR node, run the following command from an elevated command prompt:
cluster.exe DAG1.contoso.local group “Cluster Group” /moveto:ServerA (or ServerB)