Unix Tip: Wake up and patch the OSes

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Time is running out for anyone planning to ready their systems for the biggest time-related change since Y2K -- the 2007 Daylight Savings Time change. As Americans turn their clocks ahead one hour this year -- three weeks earlier than previously, systems administrators will be well advised to ensure their systems will do the same. Timezone configurations on systems from Solaris and Linux to Windows will require updates if not already updated through a patch, OS upgrade or service pack, to accommodate the new dates for switching to and then back off daylight savings.



No one is completely sure how all of our computer applications and business processes will be affected if systems aren't patched or if only some of our systems are patched while others are left with the old timetables for switching from standard time to daylight savings. The ill effects are most likely to be felt when systems which have not been patched share processes or databases with systems that have not been patched, creating time differences that could wreak havoc on any form of processing in which the timing of events is critical.



The reason for this change derives from daylight savings changes incorporated into the Energy Policy Act of 2005. One provision of this act specifies that US clocks -- for the first time this year -- will be moved ahead on the second Sunday in March instead of the first Sunday in April. In 2007, that's March 11th instead of April 1st. In addition, the change back to standard time will occur one week later -- the first Sunday on November instead of the last Sunday in October. The purpose of this change is not to avoid having all of America messing with our clocks on April Fools' Day, but to conserve energy by increasing the period in which daylight savings time is observed. As a result of these changes, daylight savings will last four weeks longer starting this year. This provision amends the Uniform Time Act of 1966 -- the act that regularized the observance of daylight savings time in the US. Prior to the 1966 act, many states observed daylight savings time, but only in accordance with local customs.



Not just for the US

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