Daylight Savings Time
10/23/07
Note: This page was originally written for the Feb/Mar end of DST. If your machine was patched and behaved appropriately in that time frame, you should have no issues in Oct/Nov.
We do suggest printing your calendar for the week of October 29 as you did for the previous time frame.
What You Need To Do: (Executive Summary)
Changes in the dates for Daylight Saving Time will cause problems in certain computer systems if they are not patched. ITS will be working the week of February 26, 2007 to address systems that need updating.
You can protect your calendar appointments from being mis-timed by doing the following:
1. Print a hard copy of your calendar prior to Feb 27. You should print the weeks of March 12, 19, and 26, and October 29.
2. Do not enter new appointment information on Feb 28 or Mar 1. (This refers to the act of scheduling, not just that the appointments not fall on those days)
3. Mac users should run a system update. We have no automated updater for Macs, and the DST issue is covered in the system software numbered 10.4.8 or 10.3.9.
4. Microsoft has suggested that appointments scheduled for the dates in question be titled with the time of the appointment as part of the subject. (e.g. "Staff Meeting, 2pm")
After the update, ITS will alert the campus via email that the process is complete. You should then use the printed calendars to verify the schedule for the four weeks in question, and reschedule as necessary.
Users of mobile devices will need to view one of the following pages:
- For Windows Mobile Devices
- For Blackberry Devices
- For Palm Devices
Update: 2/23/07
Powerpoint Presentation from 2/23 meeting is found here.
As of February 23, Microsoft has made the DST patch a "critical update". This makes it generally available and easy to install on home machines via Windows Update.
What's Going On:
A brief synopsis, from Microsoft's website:
In August of 2005 the United States Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, which changes the dates of both the start and end of daylight saving time (DST). When this law goes into effect in 2007, DST will start three weeks earlier (2:00 A.M. on the second Sunday in March) and will end one week later (2:00 A.M. on the first Sunday in November) than what had traditionally occurred.
The change in DST will have an effect on many automated and technology reliant products. Individual consumers, small to medium size businesses, and large enterprises may be affected by the new change in time. Computer-system related issues include, for example:
- Calendar / Scheduling Applications
- Date / time calculations (current and historical)
- Transaction logging (UTC vs. Local Time)
In order to adequately and appropriately update our campus systems, the required updates must take place in a certain order. The order of our updates as is follows:
1. OS Updates to all Microsoft Server products.
2. OS Updates to all Windows Desktops (deployed through WSUS)
3. DST Update applied to Exchange Server
4. Exchange Time Zone Update Tool run against all mailboxes.
The timing of these steps is very important, so as to cause the minimum number of appointments that would be affected. The timing of steps 2 through 4 need to be accomplished in the smallest amount of time possible, as any appointments or meetings scheduled during that time will not correctly appear on the calendar when step 4 is complete.
Our plan is to release the Windows Patch (step 2) on Tuesday, February 27 at 5pm, and to run steps 3 and 4 on Thursday, March 1 at 5:30pm. This will allow IT the time to check on machines that need intervention, and to verify the patch has been fully deployed.
More information about the switch can be found on Microsoft's website at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/dst_topissues, and at Apple: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305056
If you have any questions regarding this update, please contact the Helpdesk at x4400 or your support team.
