#MSDynGP: I messed up installing a Microsoft Dynamics GP Service Pack

Yeah. I admit it.

I messed up! ☹️

But it is sorted and fixed now, thanks to a great article by my friend and fellow MVP, Jen Kuntz.

I have spent the last few months working extremely hard on the next release of GP Power Tools. Build 29 is now “code complete”, which basically means I have got all the features, fixes and enhancements I had planned to get into the product completed. Now I am working on the updates to the User Manual, which I expect to easily break the 600 page mark. Also, I am making any last minute tweaks identified by myself or the beta testers. If you an existing customer or partner and are interested in beta testing GP Power Tools, please contact me.

Anyhow, back to my blunder. Terry Heley from Microsoft asked if I could test a pre-release service pack which should fix the issue mentioned in the following article:

• #MSDynGP Microsoft Dynamics GP 18.4 hotfix breaks features for Australian Customers

I didn’t have an Australian installation on my system and Terry did not have the full DVD image, so I needed to install a new Australian instance of GP and upgrade it by applying the Service Pack MSP patch file.

I initially installed a new test instance of GP v18.4 but because I remembered hearing something about Service Packs upgrading all installs of the same version, I made backup copies of my GP v18.4 development folder and the GP v18.4 test folder.

Then I ran the Service Pack file, but the pre-release code had an issue doing the upgrade from v18.4 RTM.  No problem. I uninstalled the test instance and removed the created system and company databases, and prepared to start the test again. This time I would use GP v18.3 as the starting point for the test.

Then I noticed that the Service Pack had updated more than my v18.4 installs!! ☹️

On my primary machine I have a total of 9 installs, for the 6 versions I am currently developing. A closer check confirmed the Service Pack had updated all the v18.X installs (*), including ones I did not copy the folders for.

• GP 2015 & GP 2015 R2 (v14.0)
• GP 2016 & GP 2016 R2 (v16.0)
• GP 2018 & GP 2018 R2 (v18.0) *
• GP Modern (v18.2) *
• GP Modern (v18.4) *
• GP Modern (v18.4) *

As an ISV (Independent Software Vendor), I don’t normally install Service Packs and never perform upgrades. I always do clean installs from the release DVD images. I am really out of practice when it comes to service pack and upgrade processes.

I was able to restore the incorrectly updated folders from an older backup and re-install/copy the updated files to recover my development environment back to where it should be. As I had not launched the GP instances, the SQL databases were unchanged.

Now, I installed an Australian test instance of GP 18.3 and made backup copies of all my GP 18.X folders. To prevent the Service Pack upgrading instances I didn’t want changed, I tried renaming the folders but the Service Pack complained it could not find the folders and aborted.

I went online to look for a solution and this is where Jen Kuntz came to the rescue with the following article:

• Multiple instances of GP & applying service packs

Using the Jen’s instructions I was able to locate the Product Code GUID for the instance I wanted to upgrade by looking in the Windows Registry under the SETUP Key for the appropriate instance. The list of instances can be found under:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Business Solutions\Great Plains\<Version>\1033

Then I could run the Service Pack MSP file with the /n {GUID} parameters to limit the Service Pack installation to the single specified instance. Yay! 😀

For example:

C:\MicrosoftDynamicsGP18-KBXXXXXXX-ENU.msp /n {0CE7DF8C-A2FE-474B-BEBB-FC7EF4DECB41}

Final note: The test was a success as the Service Pack does resolve the issue with the Australian installation. I have since removed the test instance and its databases as well as the backup folders and my system is all back in order.

Let this article and my mess up be a lesson so you avoid the making same mistake.

Even with this method, I still think that GP service packs should ask which instance to install on when there is more than on instance on a system. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Thanks Jen for your help, and thanks Terry for getting the Australian install issue fixed.

David

30-Aug-2022: Added example command line.

This article was originally posted on http://www.winthropdc.com/blog.