SharePoint 2013 and Project Server CU upgrade path

If you plan to upgrade to SharePoint 2013 this year, you should target at least March 2013 CU as described in previous blog due to a change in the package configuration introduced after SharePoint 2013 RTM the March Public update is a mandatory requirement.   You will plan upgrade to other CUs later than March 2013 CU as in one of the following categories, you may pay extra attention to the upgrade path.

1. Upgrade current SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013 latest CU like June CU
2. Upgrade current SharePoint 2013 RTM release to latest CU like June CU
3. Add Project Server to current SharePoint 2013 RTM release

Consider you are on in category #2 on SharePoint RTM version. If you skip March CU and directly apply other latest CU like April or June CU, you might get the error “InvalidOperationException: This operation can be performed only on a computer that is joined to a server farm by users who have permissions in SQL Server to read from the configuration database.” 

This will apply to category #3 when you on SharePoint 2013 RTM but you want to add Project Server June CU. If you directly apply Project Server June CU, you will get the same error described above. You will get the error when you try to lunch central admin as in the following screen shot and ULS error.

07/25/2013 09:09:26.67 Microsoft.Office.Project.Server (0x0420)              0x0918  SharePoint Foundation                 Upgrade                                       ajyxh     High       07/25/2013 09:09:26.67 Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Calculation (0x0420) 0x0918 SharePoint Foundation Upgrade SPConfigurationDatabaseSequence ajyxh DEBUG UpgradableBuildBypass = 0 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000         07759982-44f5-e211-9dbb-005056030553

07/25/2013 09:09:26.69 Microsoft.Office.Project.Server (0x0640)              0x091C  SharePoint Foundation                 Upgrade                                       ajyxh     High       07/25/2013 09:09:26.69 Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Eventing (0x0640) 0x091C SharePoint Foundation Upgrade SPConfigurationDatabaseSequence ajyxh DEBUG UpgradableBuildBypass = 0 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000         8a05b682-44f5-e211-9dbb-005056030553

07/25/2013 09:09:26.69 Microsoft.Office.Project.Server (0x0818)              0x0910  SharePoint Foundation                 Upgrade                                       ajyxh     High       07/25/2013 09:09:26.69 Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Queuing (0x0818) 0x0910 SharePoint Foundation Upgrade SPConfigurationDatabaseSequence ajyxh DEBUG UpgradableBuildBypass = 0 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000         ae34d082-44f5-e211-9dbb-005056030553

07/25/2013 09:09:26.70 hostcontrollerservice.exe (0x0A90)         0x0AC0 SharePoint Foundation                 Database                                      3759       Critical   Database 'sbx2013_Config' on SQL Server instance 'sbxxx\sharepoint' is not empty and does not match current database schema. 

The error from ULS logs indicate database upgrade issues since there is a change in the package configuration introduced in March 2013 CU and it is the  mandatory CU you need to apply before other CUs! In additional Project Server 2013 PU contains SharePoint Server PU and SharePoint Foundation PU. As a result the correct upgrade path for the previous three categories are:

1. SharePoint 2013 RTM-> SharePoint March 2013 CU-> SharePoint June 2013 CU
2. SharePoint 2013 RTM-> SharePoint March 2013 CU-> SharePoint June 2013 CU
3. Project Server 2013 RTM-> Project Server March 2013 CU-> Project Server June 2013 CU

If you already skiped March 2013 CU and applied other CUs, you might need to reapply the March 2013 CU first and other CUs again. We are not sure this will fix the issue.

We have recommend Microsoft to add a checker to any future CU to verify whether March 2013 CU installed. If not, it should not continue and error out with correct message.