Tip 1: The right way to upgrade to a SharePoint Service Pack or Update

This
tip is for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint
Server 2007.

First
step test the update in a test farm. Second, test again. Third, make backups (Database
and file system). Okay, now you can start with the upgrade.

Install
the Windows SharePoint Services update/Service Pack on all servers in the farm.
Install the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server update/Service Pack on all
servers in the farm if applicable.

Run
the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard on each server in
the farm. A good start would be the server running the Central Administration
service. Alternatively, you can run psconfig.exe -cmd upgrade –inplace
b2b to accomplish this. Some upgrade errors can be fixed by running
the psconfig.exe command with the psconfig.exe -cmd upgrade –inplace
b2b -force switch also.

Only
after all of the updates and wizards have run successfully, is the farm
upgraded to the new version. A good way to test this is to run stsadm.exe -o localupgradestatus on
the servers in the farm. If it shows OK, the upgrade was successful on that
server.