Forum posting about DST

I decided to do another posting to some of our MV community forums, introducing people to the upcoming changes in Daylight Saving Time. The content is included here. If you already read the forum posting for this date, there’s nothing new here. But if you haven’t read the forum posting you might get some new insight about what’s involved with this DST situation.

For any of you who don’t know, DST changes in the USA take effect in March. A lot of information about this is on my blog, including links to IBM, HP, Sun, Linux, Microsoft, and other resources for details and software patches.

While this was initated in the USA it does have global ramifications for systems that integrate with systems in the USA. Everyone is encouraged to research how it applies to their site and those of end-users for whom we are all responsible. Vendors, please take this opportunity to contact your client base to ensure they are aware of the changes and that they have done their own investigations to ensure their businesses are not interrupted. End-users should similarly contact their vendors if they need assistance. This is important for any company that has not updated their operating systems over just the last few months – especially older releases.

Do not make assumptions about automatic patching or that no action is required:
– All OS vendors have some statement about which components of their software are affected.
– In many cases SysAdmins have automatic updates turned off.
– Automatic patches may not provide complete coverage, and even official patches have been found to not be compatible with all systems.
– Over the last few months Microsoft, RedHat, and other companies have made many updates to their websites with new documentation and manual patches to address specific environments.
– In other cases patches require a reboot (even for Linux) which is not done automatically unless the system is configured to do so.
– Some patches are for firmware which cannot be applied automatically.
– Some devices (Symbol, Intermec, etc) running embedded Linux, Windows, and/or Java are never thought of for updates.
– Some operating systems will continue to report different time settings if the application software (database!) written over them was compiled with pre-patch libraries.
– Some OS releases are considered "retired" by the vendors who will publish neither automatic nor manual patches. Upgrades are required.

If you have information which you believe would be helpful to the diverse base of MV users and developers, please let me know and I will be happy to review it for posting.

This is not a solicitation. Nebula Research and Development is not providing services related to this event. This information is provided as a courtesy to the Pick / MultiValue user-developer community.

Tony Gravagno, Nebula R&D

(This blog is not a definitive resource of information, please contact your OS vendor (vendor of hardware for larger servers) to get their latest updates.)