MOSS 2007 Content Deployment QFE Pack Now Available via MSFT CSS

[UPDATE] Don't be deploying these fixes, go get the Infrastructure Updates instead (which include these fixes).

Whilst assisting customers recently who are experiencing issues with Content Deployment (CD) in MOSS 2007, it appears CSS now has a huge QFE that addresses a ton of known issues (60+) specific to (CD). For now it looks like you can only get it via Microsoft Customer Support Services (CSS). Like other hotfixes, it's likely this QFE pack will be included in a future MOSS update roll up but there are no details or confirmation on this at present.

The QFE pack helps address some of the most common issues with (CD), namely:

• Master page settings are not deployed correctly
• Seemingly random PRIMARY KEY errors (Cannot insert duplicate key in object...)
• Job timeouts for large site collections
• Various issues around replicating and modifying permissions

This pack is a huge step forward and goes a long way to resolving the pain points around (CD), demonstrating the commitment of the product group and sustained engineering teams to address the (CD) conundrum.

If you are affected by the issues above, you can obtain the pack by opening a support case with CSS detailing your issues and requesting the hotfixes 952698 (for WSS 3.0) and 952704 (for MOSS 2007). Before you jump and call CSS, make sure you read my post on “good platform hygiene” first:

Content Deployment: Ensure your platform hygiene before randomly abusing the product and calling support

If, like many customers, you are not experiencing issues with Content Deployment, you do not need the QFE Packs.

MOSS 2007 (CD) is built on top of the WSS 3.0 content migration API, known by many as PRIME. Many of the fixes in the QFE pack address issues rooted in the content migration API. In addition, the MOSS 2007 Publishing Variations capability leverages the content migration API to replicate content across sites. Therefore variations, just like anything else dependent on the content migration API, benefits from this QFE pack although to varying degrees dependent upon your specific scenario.

* It is important to note that the CD pack does not change the by design behaviour where the parent Site Collection’s content is deployed while a sub-site is being deployed.

Note that these QFEs do not add new functionality to (CD) in MOSS 2007! It is still a single master, one-way direction publish of changes in one environment to another and that target environment should be considered read-only.