We are happy to announce that Service Pack 2 for Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 has been released to the Microsoft Download Center.  It includes all the fixes prior to SP2, and also several enhancements to improve server farm performance, availability and stability. Plus, a new stsadm operation has been added to help customers prepare for the upgrade to the next version of SharePoint. We recommend installing this new service pack and to help, I’ve assembled links to the KB articles, downloads, install steps and benefits. 

Update on 05/21/09 :

Important Notice:

A bug in Service Pack 2 could affect the server farm licensing information, for more information, please refer to the new post here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/05/21/attention-important-information-on-service-pack-2.aspx  

KB Article Links

Description of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Language Pack SP2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953338
Description of 2007 Microsoft Office servers Service Pack 2 (SP2) and of 2007 Microsoft Office servers Language Pack Service Pack 2 (SP2)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953334

Download Links

Service Pack 2 for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, x86 & x64
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=79BADA82-C13F-44C1-BDC1-D0447337051B&displaylang=en

Service Pack 2 for Office SharePoint Server 2007, x86 & x64
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B7816D90-5FC6-4347-89B0-A80DEB27A082&displaylang=en

Slipstream Builds For Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP2, x64
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9FB41E51-CB03-4B47-B89A-396786492CBA&displaylang=en
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP2, x86
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=EF93E453-75F1-45DF-8C6F-4565E8549C2A&displaylang=en

Installation Steps

To keep all the files in a SharePoint installation up-to-date, the following packages need to be applied on all servers in the farm. Service Pack 2 contains all fixes released through February of this year, so customers can install it directly on RTM build of the products.

1. Service Pack 2 for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
2. Service Pack 2 for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Language Pack (if applicable)
3. Service Pack 2 for Office SharePoint Server 2007
4. Service Pack 2 for Office SharePoint Server 2007 Language Pack (if applicable)

After applying the preceding updates, run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard or "psconfig –cmd upgrade –inplace b2b -wait” in command line. This needs to be done on every server in the farm with SharePoint installed.  The version of content databases should be 12.0.0.6421 after successfully applying these updates.

For more in-depth guidance for the update process, we recommend that customers refer to the following articles. These articles provide a correct way to deploy updates, identify known issues (and resolutions), and provide information about creating slipstream builds.

Deploy software updates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288269.aspx
Deploy software updates for Office SharePoint Server 2007
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263467.aspx

Create an installation source that includes software updates (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc287882.aspx
Create an installation source that includes software updates (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261890.aspx

Benefits

Customers can be benefited from the following enhancements with Service Pack 2.

• Performance and Availability Improvements

Service Pack 2 includes many fixes and enhancements designed to improve performance, availability, and stability in your server farms, including:

• New Timer job automatically rebuilds content database index to improve database performance.
• When a content database is marked as read-only, the user interface will be modified so users cannot perform tasks that require writing to the database.
• Performance enhancement across nearly all the components.
  
• Improved Interoperability

Service Pack 2 continues to improve SharePoint interoperability with other products and platforms.

• Broader support of browsers
  Internet Explorer 8 is added into Level 1 browser support.
  FireFox 3.0 is added into Level 2 browser support. (Firefox 2.0 is no longer supported by Mozilla)
• Provide improved client integration user experience with Form Based Authentication. Now the client application can store user credentials instead of asking for them every time. For more technical details please refer to the updated articles on TechNet.
  Configure forms-based authentication (Office SharePoint Server
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262201.aspx
  Configure forms-based authentication (Windows SharePoint Services)
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288043.aspx
  
• Getting Ready for SharePoint Server 2010

A new preupgradecheck operation is added to stsadm tool. It can be used to scan your server farm to establish whether it is ready for upgrade to SharePoint Products and Technologies "14". It identifies issues that could present obstacles to the upgrade process. It checks for several SharePoint Products and Technologies "14" system requirements, including the presence of Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 and a 64-bit hardware, and provides feedback and best practice recommendations for your current environment, together with information on how to resolve any issues that the tool discovers. 

The full explanation of SP2 benefits can be downloaded here:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148551

Related Technical Resources

Service Pack 2 Overview
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148374

Updates Resource Center for SharePoint Products and Technologies
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sharepointserver/bb735839.aspx

The full list of changes can be found here: (Excel 2007 format)
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 Changes
Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP2 Changes

Customers can also go to this KB article for a full list of downloads for Office System 2007 SP2.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968170

FAQ

 Q: Can I install SP2 on RTM? Can I install SP2 on RTM + SP1? Can I install SP2 on RTM + SP1 + IU? Can I insall SP2 on RTM + SP1 + some CU?
 A: All yes. SP2 can be installed directly on any build before Febrary 2009.  For CU releases after SP2, we suggest you install SP2 first, then apply those CU packages. 

 Q: Do I need to run psconfig after the install of every package?
 A: No, apply all the packages, then run psconfig once. In this way the database will only be updated once, to the newest version. Otherwise it would be updated several times, which is a waste of time.

 Q: Do I need to run psconfig on every machine in the farm? I already run it on one of the machines and the database is already updated.
 A: Yes. Although database is already updated. The files on each servers needed to be set permissions using psconfig. Since the database is already updated, the process would be much faster.

 Q: Will Windows Server 2008 SP2 and WIndows Server 2008 R2 be supported?
 A: Yes, they will be supported on their release

 Q: Will there be a MOSS slipstream build?
 A: So far there is no plan to create a MOSS slipstream build. Customers can refer to the slipstream guide on TechNet mentioned earlier in the blog to create their own build based on their needs.

Jie Li

Technical Product Manager, SharePoint