Good Afternoon
Recently I and another Modality colleague (Tom Arbuthnot, www.lyncdup.com) had a discussion around Lync 2010 and Lync 2013 coexistence and how and when to run the CU updates on both Lync versions/platforms in accordance with Microsoft’s Best Practice guidelines.
From the conversation with Tom, and further investigation I thought it would be worth detailing the ‘do’s and dont’s for running the Lync CU updates sent from Microsoft periodically.
So at this point if you are reading this blog post I’m presuming you are in the predicament on what to do next.
The answer is simple. (it depends on where your CMS store is located)
If your CMS store is still located on Lync 2010 then run the CU update for Lync 2010 as normal. If your CMS store is on Lync 2013 run then CU updates for Lync 2013 as normal. SIMPLE RULE !! Don’t ever run the SQL update part of the CU update on the Lync version where the CMS store ISNT located.
In an example, I have a Lync 2010 environment running CU7 and a Lync 2013 environment running RTM and the CMS Store is still located on Lync 2010.
In this scenario you can update Lync 2010 with CU8 including updating the SQL backend database as per CU instruction. To update Lync 2013 you only run the CU1 update for the components only and NOT (and again NOT) the SQL database update!!
Vise Versa
If you have moved your CMS store from Lync 2010 to Lync 2013, then updating Lync 2010 is only the components only and NOT the SQL update part. And for Lync 2013 which now homes the CMS store, run the full CU update including the SQL update part.
Hope this helps the understanding
As a side note: Please check out Tom’s Blog as it has reference to excellent Lync content. again the Link is www.lyncdup.com
Regards
Iain Smith
NorthernUC 
Thanks John!
And so what happens if I did run the SQL update on the 2013 server that doesn’t yet have the CMS? How do I fix this?
You Tell Me……!! 🙂
joking aside, Ive never run the SQL Update on a production environment in the wrong order so i cant 100% comment on the consequence on what the effect it would cause.
HOWEVER i have lab’d this senario for you, and at this moment i cant see any issue in running the update into SQL where the CMS is on the other SQL instance. (just make sure both versions are patched up to the same CU SQL version before you attempt to move the store)
Hi, this is excellent info. Thanks. I am facing a similar scenario. – I currently support a Lync environment that has multiple Lync 2010 pools with 100K + users, and a single Lync 2013 Standard Edition server that hosts CMS, but only has a few beta accounts homed.
We are planning on installing Cumulative updates to all servers in the following weeks, and I’m trying to clarify what database updates are needed. This is a Lync 2013 environment, but all active users are homed in Lync 2010 EE pools. Following the CU installation, what is your opinion regarding the DB updates? My plan is to start with the 2013SE, install CUs, and then run the DB update using the 2013SE FQDN. Next, install the CU on the 2010 EE pool servers without running the DB update. I’m interested in your opinion. BTW, we have a Dev environment with the same configuration (scaled down) and had 2010 BE SQL problems after we ran the DB update. This issue was related to the account used to run the CU installer didn’t have sysadmin rights for the SQL DBs. Again, you always have excellent info, and I would appreciate you feedback.