Years ago we installed a sql server service pack on a non-clustered server and the results were usually fine. Now they want a fallback plan in case the service pack install fails. This is a good idea but I'm not sure what comprises a good fallback plan for sql. (Uninstall the service pack -- never done that before. We can start by backing up all databases but restoring them, including the system databases, will be time consuming. Maybe we should image the entire server to trim the restoration time.)
Any thoughts you have on this matter will be appreciated,
TIA,
edm2
P.S. I presume a sql service pack can possibly update\modify both system and user databases.
If it simplifies anything, let's assume we are talking about Sql Server 2008