Infrastructure Update

This concern has come full circle and put to rest.  You can read the original problem in the first interview with Troy on AAM and public URL issues concerning the Infra Update, which definitely affect some public environments.

Here's a comment from a reader...

Hi Joel,
I do understand that I am posting the comment in wrong blog post, but I felt you would be more receptive to comments on latest blogs.

Microsoft released their MOSS Infrastructure Update patch and it has issues in it. In thier kb article http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=951695, Under Known issues discovered after release of this update section, they ackowleged that Public URL don't work. We held off installing this update because our configuration was getting hit in QA environment. Now they released their August Cumulative patch, and I still cannot see that they addressed this issue.

We want to install the Infrastructure Update badly, because it solves many of our issues. But we are not sure, if the Public URl has been fixed or not?

Is there any workaround for the issuse AAM?

An Anonymous Blog Reader

Here's what I got from Troy my favorite tester in the product team:

Hi Joel –

Yep, you can grab the fix from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956248.

Here's a bit more detail from the KB that is very promising for those that were waiting:

List of issues that this hotfix package fixes

This hotfix package fixes the following issues that are not previously documented in a Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

 

Either while you are installing update KB951695 or after you install this update, you experience the following issue:
When you install the Infrastructure Update in a SharePoint farm that uses Alternate Access Mapping with a reverse proxy or with a network load balancer, such as in an extranet deployment, some public URLs may become unresponsive.

Note: This Hotfix looks like it only applies to WSS, but it does also apply and relate to MOSS.

Emphasis added by me.  (Joel Oleson)

Joel: I think it's very reasonable now to not hold back, but to get the latest updates on your WSS and SharePoint Server farms.  The Infrastructure update I consider the most important of all even more than SP1.  I do recommend installing WSS SP1, MOSS SP1, then Infrastructure Update for WSS, then Infrastructure Update for MOSS, then the latest cumulative hotfix.  If this issue arises then install this.  You should only install this if you are affected by the issue. Simply follow the SharePoint Update Roadmap.

Service packs are cumulative, but it is important to understand along the way if you have any issues with any of the major packages.  Also be sure to read any related docs to any installs.  SharePoint Hotfixes and Service Packs are NOT Trivial.  There is no such thing, you must always test and verify before rolling it out.  Failures or incompleted build to build (essentially that's what these are) upgrades are very common among people who don't know what they're doing, and first timers.  The simple techniques of overcoming these are tribal knowledge, but also documented on TechNet in lengthy documents on upgrading Hotfixes and patches.  Those techniques are clearly spelled out, and that's what product support will have you do, so you might as well read it.  In addition, going through a change management process with proper test and validation will ensure business validation and proper downtime communication or alerts.

Other Useful Resources:

Is this Hotfix going to break my SharePoint Deployment?

How do I troubleshoot SharePoint, So many Logs!

Presentation: Understanding and deploying hotfixes, public updates, and service packs

Updates Resource Center for SharePoint Products and Technologies site

Deploying software updates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

Deploy Software updates for SharePoint Server 2007