Reinstalling Cumulative Updates in Configuration Manager

One request we often receive is for information on reinstalling cumulative updates with System Center 2012 Configuration Manager. This comes up specifically in the case of a disaster recovery scenario, where hotfixes may need to be reinstalled to the same server following a restore from backup.

The challenge is that our cumulative updates do not support the uninstall operation via Add/Remove Programs, and a proper reinstall will be blocked due to the presence of Windows Installer data for the cumulative updates in the registry. 

For example, the file system on the site server may have binaries from RTM, but the database was backed up after cumulative update 2 (CU2) was applied. CU2 binaries will need to be re-applied after completing a restore. In this scenario, the CU2 installer would return the following message:

“This update is already installed on the computer. Only options to create deployments for this update are available.”

To unblock this scenario, you need to remove the Windows Installer data for CU2 with the MSIEXEC command line. This requires the CU2 .MSI file, or its associated Windows Installer Product Code property. 

Using CU2 for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Service Pack 1 as an example, either of the following commands could be run from an elevated command prompt on the site server:

MSIEXEC /X C:\CU2\cm12-sp1cu2-kb2854009-x64-enu.msi
or
MSIEXEC /X {6600CD0C-1503-490D-9351-9556F689837D}

The Product Code property can be obtained through various scripts, or by using the Orca.exe tool – the value to look for is ProductCode in the Property table.

Depending on the recovery scenario, the .MSI file may still be available under <smsroot>\hotfixes\KB<KBiID>\server\.
Alternately, it can be manually extracted from the cumulative update package by running the .EXE installer with a /X switch. For example:

CM12-SP1CU2-KB2854009-X64-ENU.EXE /X

will display a “Choose Directory For Extracted Files” window. The resulting MSI will be available in the specified location.

Note that while this is utilizing the MSIEXEC uninstall parameter (which can also be listed as /Uninstall instead of /X), this process is not supported for normal site operation. Even though Windows Installer data is removed, and some files may be rolled back, updates to the site database are not. This means the only time you should utilize this process is immediately preceding the reinstallation of the cumulative update.

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Cumulative Update Product Codes

Configuration Manager SP1 CU1
{4D526D52-29EE-47CE-AAF8-0591ED7E3FF8}

Configuration Manager SP1 CU2
{6600CD0C-1503-490D-9351-9556F689837D}

--Brian Huneycutt and QianDong Ni

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties and confers no rights.