FORE!

Download Service Pack 4 here, and here’s the list of bugs it fixes.

Should you install it? Sometimes people think, “I don’t need to bother installing this update because I’m not having any problems.” Well, friend, check out KB #3146404: canceling a backup crashes SQL Server. You don’t wanna run into that, now, do you?

It also includes improvements for query tuners:

• Trace flags are included in the query plan XML
• CPU time and elapsed time are also included in the plan (so are some wait stats, but careful because the waits aren’t accurate)
• Memory grants shown in the plan now include nested loop join operators

So start planning your outage windows now. Besides, it’s probably the last one we’re gonna have for 2012, right? We’ve never had a Service Pack 5 before. Although we’ve never had SQL Server on Linux before, either, so…maybe.