I think it is okay to have the same assembly version between different versions or patches. But please, please, please stop calling all releases for "EPiServer CMS 6 R2". It confuses both communication between customers, operation service providers and colleagues. Please at least tag the release as "EPiServer CMS 6 R2 Patch 3" or something similar.

I suppose this long procedure will lead to significant downtime on production servers.

And also perhaps some startup performance hit afterwards when the assemblies are loaded from the bin folder instead of GAC?

The patch paradigm for 6 R2 is a mess - several hotfixes which seems to be released via blog posts instead of being put on the hotfix download page.

completly agree with Shamrez these fixes need to be managed a lot better and make it so they can be applied via deployment center minimizing any downtime.

How do I get the version before this one? Need to install the 501 version. Not like i would like to hotifx hotfixes and hotfixes all the time.

I do not like to pach an existing installation just install episerver on new server without the need of adding another hotfix when we move sites from one server to another and are in need of installing episerver cms 6 r2 on that machine...

During uninstall/install the site(s) should be fully functional. The only down time is when you recycle the application pool which can be done all at once (iisreset) or by recycling each site individually.

Minesh, I don't see how making a hotfix available via deployment center would cut down-time? Can you elaborate on that?

but what if i have two diffrent versions of episerver cms 6 installed on the same machine...two diffrent customers. how do i do that without the need for a hotfix on the other site as well? without the dbscript you had earlier the schedule jobs stoppd working. This is actually a case at the moment... :)

I might stop by your desk tomorrow ;)

Maybe that was not clear enough. The most important change (judging from this discussion) in this latest update is that you no longer need to update the database. Reinstalling R2 with the latest installer does not require you do anything else to the database regardless if you previously applied the db upgrade scripts or not.

You are welcome to stop by my desk!

Awsome! thank you :)

I would add to the instructions a specifc step about the shared services configuration files or maybe mainly the indexing services configuration file (EPiServer.IndexingService.exe.config) so you don't need to write the entries about the sites to the file manually after the upgrade.

A question: If you are currently on CMS6 R2 and wish to apply .502, do you need to apply the .500 and .501 updates prior to applying .502 ? Or can you go directly to .502?

Has anyone phased the NullReferenceException after the latest update?
Same as:
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at EPiServer.Common.Configuration.ConfigurationSectionBase`1.GetInstance(String sectionName)
at EPiServer.Common.Settings.LoadEntityProviders()
at EPiServer.Common.Settings.LoadSettings()
at EPiServer.Framework.Initialization.InitializationEngine.InitializeModules()

I have the same question as Lars: If we're on 6.1.379.0, do we just install th 502 hotfix or do we need to go to 500 and 501 first?

Feeling really really nervous about this - we have a shared hosting environment with 6 sites on it. 5 of them are at version 6.1.379.0 and one is at .500. We need to apply the .502 patch to the .500 one but looks like we will need to apply this to all. Should I be nervous?

It would be useful if the release instructions for a patch included instructions on how to effectively back everything up so it can be rolled back (or even better if the deployment centre handled this!!)

Is it possible for you guys to update the nuget package for cms 6 r2 to the .502 version?
http://nuget.episerver.com/en/OtherPages/Package/?packageId=EPiServer.CMS.Core

I'm having issues with upgrading to .502 while at the same time having other packages that is dependent on the EPiServer.CMS.Core package. (Ie PageTypeBuilder, CMS6 Version of Find etc)

The (very) dirty solution is to have both the 502-files AND the reference to the old nugetpackage in the project, and that just dont feel right :)

Yes, updated Nuget packages would be nice! We're using Find in a lot of EPi6R2 projects!