Implementing a Service Pack on a Cluster | SQL Server Performance Forums

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Implementing a Service Pack on a Cluster

I have a two-node active/passive cluster, SQL Server 2000 64-bit on Windows 2003.
I wish to install SP4 on this cluster. I know that there is a separate 64-bit SP4 file (SQL2000-KB884525-SP4-IA64-ENU.EXE) and I will be using this version.
If I install the SP on the active node, will the installation automaticaly detect the other node and apply the SP there aswell without having to failover to that node? If it does not update the other node aswell, then my concern is that I will have a situation where the structures of the new SP4 system databases (on the shared disk cluster resource of the active node) may be incompatible with the older SQL Server DB engine on the local drive of the other node, which may prevent services from starting on that node. I will be doing full backups of all system and user databases before installing the SP, but do I have anything to worry about here?
It updates all involved nodes, you only install it once per sql instance that exist in the cluster. There are other issues like dependencies to consider. Check the SP4 readme: http://download.microsoft.com/downl…2k64sp4.htm#_installing_on_a_failover_cluster
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