Downloading kernel executables vs. patches

When should you download all the kernel executables to have the latest R/3 kernel executables versus downloading...

kernel patches? We are on the 46d kernel.

You might get different answers to this question. If everything seems to be working fine you may just want to update the "tp" and "r3trans" executables only and not really the R/3 kernel. My rule of thumb is to stay behind one or two versions. I had an experience with R/3 kernel patch number 584 for 4.5b. It prevented me from changing the user master records and it also caused EDI IDocs to not be sent. SAP was not aware of this problem but fortunately they had just released 590 so I upgraded my systems to it and everything worked again. There is nothing wrong staying behind as long as everything seems to be working well. A new kernel patch should be applied to one system first (DEV usually) for testing. Once you're satisfied with the test you can put it in the other servers. As you may know when you download the new kernel, you can execute disp+work -V and check out the corrections made. If you have anything there you need fixed then go for it.