BizTalk 2016 Feature Pack vs BizTalk 2016 CUs #BizTalk

So which should you install?  I’ve seen people post a few questions about installing Feature Packs in conjunction with Cumulative Updates and here is my advice and reasoning.

For BizTalk 2016 Enterprise, always install the latest Feature Packs only.  Your server will be up to date and contain some extra features you may need later, even if you don’t need them now. Feature Packs are only available for Enterprise, are cumulative and contain both the previous Feature Packs and all the CUs so no need to install those separately.

For BizTalk 2016 Standard or Branch, always install the CUs only.

For BizTalk 2016 Developer, you will want to keep this in line with whatever your Production server has.

Mixing CUs and Feature Packs either causes the installation to fail, or can cause strange issues. e.g.

• BizTalk Cumulative Update installation error: Cannot proceed with installation Biztalk server pack is installed
• BizTalk 2016 Export Bindings error message
• BizTalk-2016 Feature Pack 3 Install after Cumulative Update 6

Another site with basically the same advice BizTalk 2016 Feature Pack Updates

Note: Originally published 2nd of July 2018, under the post BizTalk 2016 – Feature Pack 3 & CU5, but now made a separate blog post.