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Daylight Savings Time Changes
This year marks the
beginning of the new Daylight Savings
Time (DST) period. As part of the Energy
Act of 2005, the time period for DST has
changed. We now move the clocks forward
on the 2nd Sunday in March (instead of
the 1st Sunday in April) and we set them
back on the 1st Sunday in November
(instead of the last Sunday in October).
Microsoft Changes and
Updates
While most people will
applaud these changes because of the
increased daylight, there is a potential
impact to computer systems that needs to
be resolved. Operating systems and other
applications have long been programmed
to automatically handle the time change
each year but now that the rules for DST
have changed, updates are needed to the
systems we support.
The biggest DST issues
are with the Microsoft operating systems
and applications that use dates/times
heavily such Exchange and Outlook. For
current systems (including Windows XP
SP2, Windows 2003, Exchange 2003),
Microsoft has released patches as part
of the normal patching cycles. In
addition, Microsoft has created an
Outlook update tool which modifies
calendar entries for the time period
between 3/11 and 4/1 (the new and old
start dates for DST) to reflect the
proper time. There is a catch though
that after the Outlook tool is run, you
need to review your calendar to insure
that your appointment times are correct.
Microsoft has even gone so far as to
recommend that you put the start time of
the meetings in the subject line of your
appointment for this time period.
One of the ways to
insure a successful transition is to do
the patches/updates in the following
order:
- Operating System
– servers first and then the
workstations
- Exchange
- Exchange
Calendar/Outlook Update Tool - two
seperate tools, but you only need to
run one of them.
The recommendation
from Microsoft is to run these patches
in quick succession.
As part of the overall
support lifecycle program, Microsoft is
not making the updates for older
operating systems unless you have
extended or custom support agreements in
place ($4,000 for a Extended and many
times more for a custom). There are ways
to manually fix these older systems.
There is a tool called TZEDIT which
allows you to modify the time zone
settings for a machine. You can also
import a specially crafted registry key
to change these settings and use a
script or Group Policy to deploy.
(Note: Vista does not need an update).
The lack of a widely available fix
could present some issues for Exchange
2000 users. While the Exchange Calendar
update tool will take care of the bulk
of the issues, items that use CDO within
Exchange – such as Outlook Web Access in
Exchange 2000 – will experience issues.
The time for users in OWA 2000 will be
off by 1 hour. As of now, I do not know
of any fix for this issue. Fortunately,
this impacts a very small number of
clients.
Other Systems and
Hardware
Most applications utilize
the clock built into the operating
system, so the patches and fixes
described above are the only things
needed to resolve any application issues
(outside of Outlook).
Some hardware devices,
such as Cisco routers/firewalls, have
system clocks as well that are DST
sensitive as well. These systems should
be updated as well to insure accurate
logging. If Cisco devices are not
patched, any system logging during the
new DST period will be off by 1 hour.
Our research has not uncovered any other
hardware issues.
CSI Recommendations
The most important thing
to remember is to patch your systems.
Install the Windows and Exchange patches
and then run the Outlook tool. If you
have Windows 2000 or older systems, we
can help you too - it’ll just take a bit
more work. NIS has been installing these
updates for clients for the past few
weeks and as far as I know, we have not
seen any issues.
For assistance with
the Daylight Savings Time Windows and
Exchange patches, please contact CSI's
support line at 860-612-1047
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