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Microsoft Issues .NET Framework Fixes To Address July 10 Patch Problems
Microsoft on Friday indicated that Windows clusters running Service Fabric were adversely affected by July 10 Windows Server updates, but that patches are now available to address the problems.
Update 8/6: A Microsoft spokesperson indicated by e-mail this afternoon that Service Fabric actually wasn't affected by the July 10 patch problems:
The issue had nothing to do with Service Fabric specifically and customers don't need to take special action based on their use of SF or not. No update to Service Fabric itself is necessary. We do recommend that people install the corrected Windows Updates in order to avoid any issues with http.sys.
Essentialy, the Service Fabric team published its announcement to repeat what was said about the July 10 patch problems. "The guidance offered has nothing to do with Service Fabric, and was a simple restatement of the general guidance given to customers dealing with the patch," the spokesperson clarified.
Microsoft also disclosed on Friday that fixes to address problems with .NET Framework applications have been released. The .NET Framework was perhaps the last of Microsoft's solutions to get updated to address software regressions introduced by Microsoft's July 10 updates.
Microsoft's July 10 Windows patches have caused multiple problems for organizations using Microsoft software. Microsoft had earlier noted that the July 10 updates had caused problems for users of SQL Server, Skype and Exchange Server, and applications using .NET Framework.
Microsoft had released updates to fix SQL Server problems on July 16 and 18. It released updates to fix problems with Exchange Server, Lync Server 2013 and Skype for Business Server 2015 on July 17 and 18.
Microsoft offered slightly different patch advice to organizations dealing with the July 10 update issues, depending on their Windows Server product. Organizations using Windows Server 2016 that were affected will have the problematic patches KB 4338814 or KB 4338824 installed. Microsoft's solution is to install updated versions of those patches.
Organizations using Windows Server 2012 R2 that were affected by the Service Fabric problems will have the problematic patch KB 4338815 installed. Microsoft's advice to address this problem was a bit more nuanced:
For clusters running on Windows Server 2012R2 -- the fix is an additional upgrade on top of the version released in July. This means that if the nodes were not updated since before July 10th, you may need to apply the July 10th update first and then execute the Windows update again to resolve the problem.
In other words, if an organization hadn't installed the problematic July 10 patch, then they'll have to install it and then update it.
Microsoft advised organizations with "very large clusters where upgrading each node is not an option" to contact Azure Support.
The updates with fixes for these problems also will be arriving later this month. Microsoft's monthly quality updates are "cumulative" updates, which means that they contain fixes for past months' releases. These updates arrive on the second Tuesday of each month. This month's "update Tuesday" event will happen on Aug. 14, and presumably these fixes will be included in the August update.
Microsoft recently described its monthly update process, and explained that it doesn't deliver new features with them.
About the Author
Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.