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Re: Daylight Savings Time and Advanced Server V7.3B

 
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Jeremy Begg
Trusted Contributor

Daylight Savings Time and Advanced Server V7.3B

A customer has reported that the timestamps on files being accessed by Windows are out by one hour: the file listing displayed by Windows shows the files' timestamps being one hour ahead of what a VMS directory listing shows.

 

The VMS server is running OpenVMS Alpha V7.3-2 (with VMS732_UPDATE V16) and Advanced Server 7.3B.

 

I have checked that the VMS logicals are correct:

 

  "SYS$TIMEZONE_DAYLIGHT_SAVING" [exec] = "1"
  "SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL" [exec] = "39600"
  "SYS$TIMEZONE_NAME" [exec] = "EST"
  "SYS$TIMEZONE_RULE" [exec] = "EST-10EST-11,M10.5.0/02,M3.4.0/03"

 

In the old PATHWORKS V6.1 software the logical names PWRK$$TDF and PWRK$$DST could be defined but I believe they are not used nor are they required by Advanced Server 7.3B.  (And defining them has not fixed the problem.)

 

To me it seems the most likely culprit is the time setup on the Windows client and I'm trying to get this confirmed, but is anyone aware of any issues with timezone & DST support in Advanced Server 7.3B?

 

Thanks,

Jeremy Begg

9 REPLIES 9
Hoff
Honored Contributor

Re: Daylight Savings Time and Advanced Server V7.3B

There's no magic elixer here.  

 

Neither Windows nor OpenVMS deals with timekeeping particularly correctly, and both ignored a timekeeping solution pioneeded before either platform was designed.  Both platforms are trapped in timekeeping designs that are, well, somewhere between archaic and bad.

 

Patch to current (OpenVMS Alpha, Java (which has its own private TZ mess), any time/TZ/DSTs updates that aren't included in UPDATE V16.0, and the current PATHWORKS Server patch) and (if the problem persists) escalate this to a third-party OpenVMS support organization or directly to HP support.  

 

Also get off of PATHWORKS and over to CIFS/Samba, and get off of OpenVMS Alpha V7.3-2 (to V8.3 or maybe V8.4), and (if the customer permits this) reconfigure the server to UTC and forget about using localtime.

 

Ensure that the Microsoft Windows boxes (probably not upgraded from Windows XP, get off of that version and up to Windows 7 are patched and correctly configured, too.  

 

Put another way, this is the usual shot-gun.

John Gillings
Honored Contributor
Solution

Re: Daylight Savings Time and Advanced Server V7.3B

Jeremy,

 

   Before computers, DST changes just meant you needed to change your watch/clock twice a year. Computers make that simple by doing it for you (yeah, right!). The catch, is you need to check that all your DST definition files are up to date, and in agreement on every system.

 

  Part of the problem here is most of the systems for storing and managing DST information was designed by folk in the USA, where DST rules were practically etched in stone in the constitution. Prior to George W's changes, most USA engineers were blissfully unaware of the headaches of DST rule changes (though Hoff got a bit of a feel of it over the years due to complaints from  the Australian CSC).

 

  The biggest issue is to find all the places where the information is duplicated. On OpenVMS V7.3, there are at least two places - the CRTL and the DTSS tables in SYS$UPDATE. You also need to check all Java installations on all platforms, because they have their own private table, and Java applications may keep a private copy of Java, with yet another private table.

 

>I have checked that the VMS logicals are correct:

>

>  "SYS$TIMEZONE_DAYLIGHT_SAVING" [exec] = "1"
>  "SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL" [exec] = "39600"
>  "SYS$TIMEZONE_NAME" [exec] = "EST"
>  "SYS$TIMEZONE_RULE" [exec] = "EST-10EST-11,M10.5.0/02,M3.4.0/03"

 

This doesn't look right to me. The differential is correct (11 hours), but the rule is wrong. It says changeover is on the LAST week of October and 4th week of March. It should be FIRST week of October and FIRST week of April. I'm not sure how you could get into this state, as the rule says you should be offset 10 hours right now. Logical names should be:

 

  "SYS$TIMEZONE_DAYLIGHT_SAVING" = "1"
  "SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL" = "39600"
  "SYS$TIMEZONE_NAME" = "EST"
  "SYS$TIMEZONE_RULE" = "EST^10EST^11,M10.1.0/02,M4.1.0/03"

A crucible of informative mistakes
Andy Bustamante
Honored Contributor

Re: Daylight Savings Time and Advanced Server V7.3B

>>> It should be FIRST week of October and FIRST week of April. I'm not sure how you could get into this state, as the rule says you should be offset 10 hours right now. Logical names should be:

 

Slightly out of date for USA.  Should be First weekend of NOV and Second week in MAR since 2006. 

 

With update 16 you should be patched however, Update_Mumble_Mumble rolled up US Daylight Saving Time ECO which requires you to run SYS$MANAGER:UTC$TIME_SETUP.COM after loading the update kit.   Re run the setup and check the logical again.

If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over? Reach me at first_name + "." + last_name at sysmanager net
John Gillings
Honored Contributor

Re: Daylight Savings Time and Advanced Server V7.3B

Andy,

 

   Both Jeremy and I are in Australia. The EST he's talking about is for NSW and Victoria. If it were USA, the dates would be reversed and the differentials wouldn't be 10 and 11 hours.

A crucible of informative mistakes
Hoff
Honored Contributor

Re: Daylight Savings Time and Advanced Server V7.3B

The CRTL and DTSS TZ/DST mechanisms were united at V7.3, and DTSS and its APIs migrated from DECnet-Plus to the base OS distro.

 

Andy Bustamante
Honored Contributor

Re: Daylight Savings Time and Advanced Server V7.3B

John,

 

That's what I get for skimming and assuming.  I owe you one at the next pub stop. 

 

 

Andy

If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over? Reach me at first_name + "." + last_name at sysmanager net
Rodney Kimber
Advisor

Re: Daylight Savings Time and Advanced Server V7.3B

Hi Jeremy,

 

We got a patch from HP a year or more ago.  

 

It changes the rule to,

 

  "SYS$TIMEZONE_RULE" = "EST-10EST-11,M10.1.0/02,M4.1.0/03"

 

The notes from the patch are,

 

This patch can be used for the following versions of OpenVMS. It includes
changes to Western Australia (from 2006), New Zealand (from 2007) and the
eastern states of Australia (from 2008).

OpenVMS Alpha V8.3
OpenVMS Alpha V8.2
OpenVMS Alpha V7.3-2

OpenVMS I64 V8.3-1H1
OpenVMS I64 V8.3
OpenVMS I64 V8.2-1
OpenVMS I64 V8.2

 

 

BTW, I don't think the patch was made public and you have to reinstall the patch if you ever install an UPDATE patch in the future.

 

Regards,

Rodney

Hoff
Honored Contributor

Re: Daylight Savings Time and Advanced Server V7.3B

How to create your own timezone patches for OpenVMS Alpha and OpenVMS I64, for V7.3 and later.

 

It is interesting how the new forum software brings in some new bugs; I have text rendered partially underneath some of the buttons.  And light blue on white?  Not the greatest choice for readability, but then this UI still looks like Darth Vader's fruit salad cup.

Jeremy Begg
Trusted Contributor

Re: Daylight Savings Time and Advanced Server V7.3B

John Gillings and Rodney Kimber were spot on.

Installing updated timezone files fixed the problem.

 

Thanks

Jeremy Begg