Microsoft has released SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 for general availability. SQL Server 2012 SP1 includes all of the fixes from SQL Server 2012 RTM CU1 and CU2, but not the fixes from CU3 and CU4.

That is pretty typical, since SQL Server Service Packs undergo longer and more thorough testing than cumulative updates do, which means that they are frozen earlier. If you have already installed SQL Server 2012 RTM CU3 or CU4, you may want to wait until SQL Server 2012 SP1 CU1 is released, which should happen fairly soon. Here is what’s new in SQL Server 2012.

One new development is that Microsoft has released full slipstream images for SQL Server 2012 SP1, which lets you install a fresh copy of SQL Server 2012 that will have SP1 installed. This will also work if you decide to do an in-place upgrade from a previous version of SQL Server (which I don’t recommend).

SQL Server 2012 SP1 is build 11.0.3000. I have updated my SQL Server 2012 Diagnostic Information Queries to reflect SP1.