This post was last updated: 1st November 2009

Service Packs and Cumulative Updates

The easiest place to go for the latest service pack is the TechNet Resource Center. It also includes any cumulative updates released in between service packs. Note that Service Pack 2 will be mandatory for any servers being upgraded to SharePoint Server 2010 when it is released (expected during the first half of 2010):

• Update Resource Center for SharePoint Technologies (TechNet)
• Service Pack 2 (TechNet)

Infrastructure Update

In July 2008, Microsoft released an infrastructure update for SharePoint Server 2007, introducing new search features included with Search Server 2008 (such as federated search and an improved search administration dashboard). It is included with both Standard and Enterprise versions of SharePoint Server 2007 and is well worth installing. If you are just running Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) you have two options – 1. Install Search Server 2008 Express (no additional licensing cost, it runs as a service on Windows Server just like WSS and is limited to a single server instance) or 2. Install Search Server 2008 – identical to Search Server Express but with scale-out options. Realistically, in this case, you are more likely to jump to full SharePoint Server 2007. Scaling just using Search Server 2008 is best suited for indexing non-SharePoint environments.

• Infrastructure Update (TechNet)
  
• Notes about the Infrastructure Update (MS blog post)

PerformancePoint Server 2007

In January 2009, Microsoft announced that PerformancePoint Server 2007 would no longer be sold as a separate server product and instead is now included with SharePoint. PerformancePoint provides much richer business intelligence and performance management capabilities (scorecards, strategy maps) than are provided with just SharePoint. Note it is only available with the Enterprise Edition of SharePoint Server 2007. It is not included with Windows SharePoint Services or SharePoint Server 2007 Standard Edition. To check if you have the Enterprise Edition installed, check your Admin console and see if you have Excel Services or the Business Data Catalog listed. Both features are exclusive to the Enterprise Edition of SharePoint Server 2007.

• Microsoft Business Intelligence Strategy Update and SharePoint (MS blog post)
• PerformancePoint Server resources on TechNet (including latest service pack)

Microsoft Search Server 2008 is due to be released later this year. It is a subset of SharePoint Server 2007, containing Windows SharePoint Services (the free add-on to Windows Server 2003 or later) and Search Center (indexing and search). You can currently download a release candidate of Search Server Express Edition

The release candidate includes two new features that will be included with Search Server 2008 and also available as an add-on for SharePoint Server 2007 later this year: 1. A new unified administration console to make it easier to configure and manage your index, and 2. Federated search – the ability to return results from multiple indexes. See previous blog posts for more info: Microsoft Enterprise Search Announcements

The following table shows UNsupported upgrade paths:

Points worth highlighting:

1. There is no supported upgrade from the current release candidate. By all means evaluate it but don’t get married to the release candidate. The only way to keep any sites you create would be use backup/restore tools (such as STSADM) to move the sites from the release candidate to a fresh installation of the RTM product
2. There is no supported upgrade from using SQL Express to a full version of SQL Server (Standard, Enterprise, Developer…) This could be a problem if you plan to start small (the Express Editions are all free add-ons to Windows Server with no additional licensing requirement but can only be installed on a single server – no load balancing or clustering possible) and later want the database to scale up and out
3. You can upgrade Windows SharePoint Services v3.0 to Search Server 2008 but the database edition will need to match – i.e. if WSS is running MSDE, it will only upgrade to SQL Server Express; if WSS is running full SQL Server, it must remain full SQL Server
4. You can upgrade Search Server 2008 or Search Server 2008 Express Edition to SharePoint Server 2007 but the database must be full SQL Server.

To understand the differences between Search Server 2008 and SharePoint Server 2007, see previous blog post – Enterprise Search Product Comparison

The information in this blog post is based on the release candidate and it is possible the supported/unsupported upgrade options may change between now and when the product is formally launched. This is not an official Microsoft statement. Check their web site for more information: www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch

* RC = Release Candidate (pre-RTM preview: product is still in development, does not include any support and features may change), RTM = Release To Manufacture (product is finished, launched and includes support for bug fixes)