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Yes...I know...Windows 2003 has already EOL'd now.

I'm dealing with a remaining one in a large environment and have some issues that I believe are related to VSS according to a KB hotfix article. Instead of applying just that single hotfix, I'd like to gather the VSS rollups that have been missed over the years.

For some reason I can't seem to remember or find how to check which VSS updates/hotfixes the server would need. I know hotfixes typically are "deploy if needed in a certain situation" but Microsoft offers some VSS update rollups that include hotfixes. However, MS is also bad about not simply publishing a chronological list that would say "here's the latest VSS rollup, apply this one".

Is there a way to find out which VSS rollups are needing to be applied to a server without trying to check file versions against each KB article? Windows Update itself doesn't seem to list out any VSS specific patches, likely because they are considered hotfixes/hotfix rollups.

TheCleaner
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  • I would presume this is the latest rollup to apply: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/940349 - but I'm not certain on that...so hence the question. – TheCleaner Aug 06 '15 at 13:18
  • Did you run across this article: http://blogs.technet.com/b/yongrhee/archive/2009/10/12/list-of-storage-related-hotfixes-post-service-pack-2-for-windows-server-2003.aspx – austinian Aug 21 '15 at 04:44
  • @austinian - no but that does help at least shortcut me to where I can figure it out manually for the most part. – TheCleaner Aug 21 '15 at 13:08
  • I just checked to see if the VSS related hotfixes were available via the Microsoft Update catalog, and they don't seem to be, so I can't check their status with WSUS. I found http://serverfault.com/questions/15122/how-do-you-know-when-a-microsoft-hotfix-has-been-obsoleted-by-a-newer-patch and http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?t=223079 as related questions. Unfortunately, none of them are resolved. – austinian Aug 21 '15 at 13:44
  • @austinian - correct, WSUS wouldn't assist me on it either. Thanks for the help...this pushes me down the right path. – TheCleaner Aug 21 '15 at 18:57

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Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a good method for doing this if you don't have access to the Microsoft Premier Support knowledgebase, which, from what I can tell from here, isn't even guaranteed to have the information you're looking for, but is simply likely to have it. Both I and many others seem to have searched for a tool or solution to the hotfix problem, but have found the quick-and-easy solution to be non-existent.

So, no, there still isn't an easy way to tell if a Hotfix has been superseded unless it's been clearly published as being superseded in its KB article. You're left doing the footwork (file version numbers) unless you have a support contract that will provide the information for you.

Related: How do you know when a Microsoft hotfix has been obsoleted by a newer patch?

Community
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austinian
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    Correct that the Premier site (which I do have access to) doesn't list it, at least not in KB 940349 at https://premier.microsoft.com/kb/940349. It does say which KB's it replaces, but doesn't say it was superceded by anything, so maybe that means it is the latest...hard to say for certain. But I do have Premier support so I'll open a case and see what they say is the latest and report back to you and accept your answer. – TheCleaner Aug 23 '15 at 03:31
  • Were you ever able to resolve this? – austinian Feb 15 '16 at 20:16
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    No...not really. I opened the case and they said basically what we already discussed here. So I ended up replacing the server with a 2012 VM :) – TheCleaner Feb 16 '16 at 14:12