Due to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 the start and end dates of Daylight Savings will change this year. Starting in March 2007, daylight time in the United States will begin on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November.
This change will require a modification to be made to all NetWare servers AUTOEXEC.ncf file to include the new start and end dates for Daylight Savings. Novell has provided a "Daylight Saving Time Adjust Tool for NetWare" to facilitate the needed changes. For more information on the tool, please see:
Daylight Saving Time Adjust Tool for NetWare
The tool can be downloaded from Novell (a link to the download is provided on the page listed above), or you can copy the files from:
\\itd-nw1\NETWARE\Utilities\Daylight_Savings_Time_Adjust_Tool
IMPORTANT NOTE
This requires a change to be made to every server in the Michigan tree to ensure time synchronization remains active and accurate. Each department is expected to perform the necessary actions on their server(s) prior to the new Daylight Savings start date of March 11, 2007.
- Read the Daylight Saving Time Adjust Tool for NetWare TID:
Daylight Saving Time Adjust Tool for NetWare
- Read the Daylight Saving Time Adjust Tool for NetWare readme.txt:
Daylight Saving Time Adjust Tool for NetWare readme.txt
- Type TIME at the server console to ensure the server time is currently synchronized, and the daylight savings start and stop are still the old dates.
If the Daylight Saving Time Adjust Tool for NetWare has not been run on the server, and the server resides in EST, the results from the Time command should be:
SERVERNAME:time
Time zone string: "EST5EDT"
DST status: OFF
DST start: Sunday, April 1, 2007 2:00:00 am EST
DST end: Sunday, October 28, 2007 2:00:00 am EDT
Time synchronization is active.
Time is synchronized to the network.
(current time UTC)
(current time EST)
If the settings are not as expected (e.g. the server is not in the correct time zone, DST status, already has the new DST Start and/or end dates, or Time is not synchronized) please stop and investigate any discrepancies.
- Copy DSTSHIFT.NLM and DSTCFG.TXT files to the SYS:System directory.
- Load DSTSHIFT.NLM at the server console.
- DSTSHIFT.NLM will process the DSTCFG.txt and the AUTOEXEC.ncf and make the necessary changes to the AUTOEXEC.ncf.
DSTSHIFT.NLM will also issue SET parameters so the change takes place immediately, and the new values are written to the NetWare Registry.
After DSTSHIFT.NLM is complete, the following message should be returned.
START OF DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME and END OF DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME updated.
Please refer to SYS:SYSTEM\DSTLOG.TXT for details
- Review the Daylight Saving Time Adjust Tool for NetWare log file. If the DSTSHIFT.NLM was copied to, and run from, SYS:SYSTEM, the log will be found at: SYS:SYSTEM\DSTLOG.TXT.
- Review the servers AUTOEXEC.ncf file to ensure the changes occurred, and the formatting looks correct. The set statements at the top of the AUTOEXEC.ncf should look similar too:
#Set parameter changed by the DSTSHIFT.NLM tool
#SET START OF DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME = (APRIL SUNDAY FIRST 2:00:00 AM)
set start of daylight savings time = (MARCH SUNDAY SECOND 2:00 AM)
#Set parameter changed by the DSTSHIFT.NLM tool
#SET END OF DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME = (OCTOBER SUNDAY LAST 2:00:00 AM)
set end of daylight savings time = (NOVEMBER SUNDAY FIRST 2:00 AM)
- Type TIME at the server console to ensure the new daylight savings start and stop dates are in effect. The results from the Time command should be:
SERVERNAME:time
Time zone string: "EST5EDT"
DST status: OFF
DST start: Sunday, March 11, 2007 2:00:00 am EST
DST end: Sunday, November 4, 2007 2:00:00 am EDT
Time synchronization is active.
Time is synchronized to the network.
(current time UTC)
(current time EST)
If the settings are not as expected (e.g. the server is not in the correct time zone, DST status, already has the new DST Start and/or end dates, or Time is not synchronized) please stop and investigate any discrepancies.
- Email novell.support@umich.edu with the list of server(s) on which this has been completed.
The steps listed above will make the necessary changes for the NetWare OS.
If you have an OES-Linux server, you may need to take steps to ensure those machines are properly configured with the new DST information.
For more information please see:
SUSE Linux and the Daylight Savings Time Change
Daylight Savings time Handling in Linux
There may be individual applications which also need investigation to determine if additional steps are needed to ensure a smooth transition to the new DST start and end. Notably, scheduling and calendar applications (such as Groupwise), and Java applications. The Java Runtime Environment stores information about the start and end dates of Daylight Savings. The JRE will need to be updated with a new JRE that includes the new DST information. Reportedly Novell will be releasing a new JRE this month based upon Suns updated JRE.
For more information:
Groupwise Daylight Savings Time Change Information
Please see:
Using the tzupdater.jar utility from Sun to update Java on workstations
Using the tzupdater.jar utility from Sun to update Java on NetWare servers
Java Applications and Daylight Savings Time Change
On Daylight Savings Time, please see:
U.S. Naval Observatory - When Does Daylight Time Begin and End?
On the Energy Policy Act of 2005 please see:
Catalog of U.S. Government Publications - Energy Policy Act of 2005
(contains links to a text format and PDF format of the full Act)
Wikipedia - Energy Policy Act of 2005
If you have any other questions, please email novell.support@umich.edu.
