Once a month my IT group runs windows updates on both our application servers and our database servers which can take a few hours. Before they run these, they shut down the db servers (and IIS), thus our customers cannot access our web based application. I had thought that the way windows updates works, this was not necessary and that when the updates complete, you would reboot and after the reboot, all the updates are incorporated while the server is booting up.
I'm told no, we need to take down the db servers for the entire time per "microsoft best practices". I can't find any such practice documented. Obviously I'd like the application to be down for as brief a time as possible.
Can anybody shed any light on this please?