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I came across a slightly thorny issue of interdependent hotfixes the other day, so I thought I'd better blog this one, as much as for my own memory as for other’s benefit.

I was installing BizTalk Server 2004 Service Pack 1 on a machine that was built with Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 as the OS. The issue flows from the fact that BizTalk Server 2004 Service Pack 1 was released before Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1.

BizTalk Server 2004 Service Pack 1 has a pre-requisite that KB890673 is installed. The Readme for BizTalk Server 2004 Service Pack 1 refers to this as the "XM GDR Update" and the title of this Knowledge Base article is the rather unwieldy "Availability of the .NET Framework 1.1 Post-Service Pack 1 XML Web services and XML Messaging hotfix rollup package 8".

So effectively in a pre- Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 world the installation of this post .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1 update is required.

This update roll-up (KB890673) is, as the name suggests, a roll-up of KB839588, KB842832, KB870722, KB872800, KB884021 and KB887191.

Now, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 includes the .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1, and also includes KB839588, KB842832, KB870722, and KB872800, but not KB884021 or KB887191.

Hmmm, I thought. KB887191 appears to be a fix for Host Integration Server, but KB890673 also mentions that this issue can occur in the .NET Framework more generally. And KB884021 refers back to KB890673.

So I was unsure if the pre-requisite for BizTalk Server 2004 Service Pack 1 was met by Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1.

I contacted Microsoft Premier Support, and they assisted in unravelling this.

Although the list of included fixes for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 does not mention KB884021 or KB887191 it does mention KB890673.