Best way to SharePoint 2016 cumulative update installation step by step process

In this SharePoint 2016 cumulative update installation tutorial, we will learn how to perform SharePoint 2016 cumulative update installation step-by-step.

SharePoint 2016 cumulative update installation

In this section, we will learn about what are the best practices for the SharePoint 2016 cumulative update installation.

Prerequisites: backup of SharePoint

Take the backup of the below:

• All content database backup
• All SharePoint database backup examples SharePoint_Config
• All servers in the farm snapshot/image backup
• All web config file backup from the WFE and application servers.

Download SharePoint security updates

The security updates can be downloaded in two ways:

• We can get it from the windows update location (check for updates)
• We can download it from the Microsoft Update Catalog.
• Get all the latest SharePoint updates history from here – SharePoint Updates.

SharePoint suspend search service application

Using the below PowerShell command suspend the search service application:

Suspend-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication –Identity "Your Search Service Application Name"

Notes:

• This will ensure that no search crawl is running during the installation or upgrade process. This might corrupt the search service application, and there will be no way to bring it back, so it is very important.
• After a successful upgrade or installation, we need to resume the search service application.

Installing SharePoint security updates

Next, install the SharePoint security updates that you need either by downloading or using the windows update.

First, start with the application server and then move on to other front-end servers on the farm.

Notes:

• All installations should be using the farm account (system admin account).
• After each security update installation on the server – that server must be restarted
• Once successful, installation on all the servers on the farm, move on to the next step.

Run SharePoint configuration wizard

This is a vital step in the server upgrading or patching process. Before running the SharePoint configuration wizard, login to your SharePoint central admin site, then go to manage servers on the farm page(/_admin/FarmServers.aspx).

Ensure, all server status shows as “Upgrade Required” otherwise you will encounter the problem when you start running the configuration wizard as you might think you already have installed security update on all the servers in the farm without any errors. Sometimes, one server status might be seen as “Installation Required” and another as “Upgrade Blocked“, here is the reason for this – Upgrade Blocked in SharePoint server.

Some Farm Products and patches were not detected on this or other servers

Once we start running the SharePoint 2016 configuration wizard, we will get the below errors:

“Error: Some farm products and patches were not detected on this or other servers. If products or patches are missing locally, you must quit this program and install the required products and patches on this server before restarting this wizard. If products or patches are missing on other servers, you must install the required products and patches on the specific servers, and you may then click the Refresh button to perform the status check again.”

We could see that the “Next” button is disabled without this fix, we cannot go ahead.

What is the root cause of this error:

To enforce consistency, SharePoint 2016 checks the installed product version automatically on running the Products configuration wizard. If any server is missing a specific patch, You get this error message, and SharePoint would not let the SharePoint Configuration Wizard proceed.

Fix (Solution) – some Farm Products and patches were not detected on this or other servers error

Just we need to run the below PowerShell command:

Get-SPProduct -local

Or

Run the “Product Version Job” timer job manually, follow the below steps for that:

• Login to the Central Admin site -> select Monitoring from the left-hand navigation.
• Click the Review Job Definitions link under Timer Jobs.
• On the Job Definitions page, scroll down and locate the “Product Version Job“.
• Click on the “Product Version Job” link to open the job definition. Click on Run Now from the bottom of the page.

Perform any of the above steps, and start running the SharePoint configuration wizard again, you will not face this error now.

Notes

• We need to follow this troubleshooting technique when you are sure, you have installed the SharePoint security update successfully on the mentioned (errored-out server), but it is blocking running the configuration wizard.
• SharePoint configuration wizard must be run by the farm account (system admin account).

Now, again you go to the manage servers on the farm page(/_admin/FarmServers.aspx), and we could see that the server status changed to “Upgrade Required“.

Common SharePoint errors while we run the SharePoint Configuration wizard

Generally, we get different types of errors while we run the SharePoint configuration wizard, below is the list along with their solution:

Issue #1: Configuration failed

The operation cannot be performed on the database “WSS_UsageApplication” because it is involved in a database mirroring session or an availability group. Some operations are not allowed on a database that is participating in a database mirroring session or in an availability group. ALTER DATABASE Statement failed.

Fix:

Remove the “WSS_UsageApplication” database from the availability group temporarily – then after a successful upgrade on all the servers in the farm – add this database back to the availability group.

Issue #2: Failed to upgrade SharePoint Products

Upgrade [SearchAdminDatabase Name=Your_Search_Service_Application_Database…] failed. Exception: Windows NT user or group ‘YourDomain\UserID‘ not found. Check the name again. Upgrade Timer job is exiting due to exception: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException (): Windows NT user or group ‘YourDomain\UserID‘ not found. Check the name again.

Fix:

The mentioned user is configured in the search service application administrator in central admin but it doesn’t have access to SQL “Your_Search_Service_Application_Database”. It had access, earlier when it was created but not now. So, we can remove this ‘YourDomain\UserID‘ from the search service application administrators, then this error will go away.

Issue#3: Failed to upgrade SharePoint Products

Exception: The upgraded database schema doesn’t match the TargetSchema

Fix:

Go to the “manage databases upgrade status” page (/_admin/DatabaseStatus.aspx) from the central admin site upgrade and migration section, there you will see the database status as “Database is in compatibility range and upgrade is recommended“.

For the content database upgrade run the below PowerShell command:

Get-SPContentDatabase | ?{$_.NeedsUpgrade -eq $true} | Upgrade-SPContentDatabase

Note:

• The above upgrade command will upgrade the content databases that require an upgrade.

If you see the remaining content databases status “Database is in compatibility range and upgrade is recommended“, then run the below command prompt command to upgrade it:

Psconfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait -force

Note:

• Need to run both the PowerShell and command prompt as administrator.
• Once we fix these errors one by one, run the SharePoint configuration wizard again – and still, if we face the same errors after following the above also, then restart the application server.
• All issues mentioned above comes from the application server, so if you are successful in the application server, your 99 percent job is done.
• After a successful upgrade in the application server, move on to the other front-end server one by one. Once all upgrades in all servers in the farm are completed successfully, open your SharePoint central admin site and other site collection randomly for testing.
• Resume back search service application.

Resume SharePoint search service application

Use the below PowerShell command to resume the SharePoint search service application:

Resume-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication –Identity "Your Search Service Application Name"

Summary: SharePoint 2016 cumulative update installation

Thus in this article, we have learned about what are the best practices for the SharePoint 2016 cumulative update installation.

See Also: SharePoint Troubleshooting

You may also like the following SharePoint PowerShell tutorials:

• Discover common Failed Timer Jobs in SharePoint 2019|2016
• Product Version Job Collection was modified enumeration operation may not execute
• [Fixed]: Fix your SharePoint 2016 Search after installing security update
• SharePoint search crawl not working [Fixed]: Incremental and Full crawl is not running automatically in SharePoint 2016
• Quick fix SharePoint Server Error: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkID=177673
• Re-Provisioning SharePoint Search Service Application using PowerShell
• [Fixed]: Start SharePoint Central Administration service using PowerShell
• [Fixed]: Restore the timer service in SharePoint Server using PowerShell script
• [Fixed]: Remove-MsolServicePrincipalCredential : Access Denied. You do not have permissions to call this cmdlet.
• [Fixed]: The term ‘Get-MsolServicePrincipal’ is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file,

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MA Microsoft Techy

I am an Enterprise Architect with 20+ years of experience in Microsoft technologies, specializing in Power Platform, Microsoft 365, governance, AI-driven solutions, and enterprise automation. I share my technical expertise with the community through my blog and YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MicrosoftTechy

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