SharePoint and Windows Patch

Question

1. Is it possible that windows patches make any kind of alteration on SharePoint Configuration? (ex. Local Admin group, IIS Application Pool or anything in general)

2. Is it also possible that windows patches may affect SharePoint functionalities? (ex. Open document files, Search, etc...)

3. If windows patch gets regularly updated on a monthly basis but the SharePoint patch version doesn't get updated. Will it cause any kind of conflict?

I believe the questions are pretty much answerable by Yes or No. Providing an explanation is very much appreciated.

Answer 1

First of all let me point you to this blog https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/stefan_gossner/

(on the right hand side you will get a lot of usefull resources re. patching process for SP)

1. Yes it is possible if your windows update is set to update as well other Microsoft product. In that case patches for SP may be delivered along with OS patches.

2. Yes sometimes. There might be for example patch for .net that SP relies on and it may affect the behavior of SP.

3. No it should not . If that happens MS usually issues an hotfix.

Now the process of patching will depend on your security policies. In the past I usually waited a month before patching SharePoint as sometimes there are issues with the Cumulative Update. Where I work currently we need to put patch (if it is security patch) within 14 days. If you farm is exposed to internet its best to patch SP regularly.

Depending on the version of SP there might be other elements you need to update (OWA farm, Application Fabric or Workflow Manger - that is for SP2013 up)