Bug in SharePoint Service Pack 2 Changes a Production License to Trial

By Barb Mosher | Published May 26, 2009

Bug in SharePoint Service Pack2 Changes a Production License to Trial Microsoft kicked off the Memorial holiday weekend with a bang. Many organizations installing the latest service pack for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) (news, site), found a nice little — make that big — bug.

During the installation of Server Pack 2 for SharePoint 2007, a product expiry date is accidentally triggered, effectively rendering production licenses into trial licenses. Hmmm, not good.

Microsoft was quick to respond with an apology and somewhat comforting news that this bug will not affect how SharePoint functions until the expiry date has passed (180 days from the service pack install). They also said it will have no impact on customer data, configuration or application code.

While a hotfix is in the works, you can now get a manual workaround to resolve the problem. Note this was the most popular link in the blog announcing the bug. The fix requires SharePoint Admins to re-enter their product licenses numbers in the Convert License Type page in Central Administration.

The bug affects Office SharePoint Server 2007, Project Server 2007, Form Server 2007, Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express, but not Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

Microsoft is still encouraging organizations to install the service pack. You just also have to apply the manual fix to the expiration date at the same time and you'll be on your way.

Luckily for Microsoft, the solution to this bug is relatively simple. Still, one has to wonder how it got in there. Microsoft doesn't release service packs for SharePoint very often and we would have expected this one to be fairly stable.