Daylight Time Zone in US for OpenVMS 7.2-1

[Kitti Thanapuasuwan]

There is no specific patch for OpenVMS V7.2-1 from this site http://h71000.www7.hp.com/dst.html. Only V6.2 and V7.3-2 are available. Which patch is the best for V7.2-1?

Kindly recommend.

[Hoff]

Per the folks at HP, I expect the best batch for V7.2-1 would be V7.3-2; an upgrade.

There is no TZ or DST ECO for V7.2-1, nor is HP likely to release one.

V7.2-1 has not been a release with either Current Version Support (CVS) nor Prior Version Support (PVS) for many years now, and HP is only releasing TZ and other ECO kits for its supported releases.

The next release with PVS support is V7.3-2, and V8.2 also has support (IIRC) and V8.3 is current; has CVS. V8.* is NOT a major release. These releases do have ECOs.

If you do not upgrade OpenVMS (and apply the TZ and other ECO kits), you will have to generate your own ECO, or contract with somebody to provide you with an ECO for V7.2-1.

As for other considerations...

There is also a Java upgrade around, and that has DST and other critical fixes for Java, should you be using Java.

With DECnet-Plus from V7.0 and prior to the integration of DECdts (DTSS) into OpenVMS V7.3, I do not immediately recall if it was using its own DST rules, or the system rules that became integrated at V7.0. I believe it used the system rules, but I'd want to confirm that.

MultiNet has an ECO, if you are using that product.

TCP/IP Services began using the OpenVMS V7.0 system rules starting with its V5.0 release, so there's no ECO needed for that.

I'd recommend testing, no matter what you decide here.

If this is all a bit of an overload and if you're on a schedule, there are organizations around that can either help expedite the upgrade to V7.3-2 (good), V8.2 (better) or V8.3 (best), or can help get your DST rules set up. (full disclosure: HoffmanLabs is one such organization.) As for the upgrade to V8.3, per published HP schedules, V8.3 will be the current version though circa 2009 and (if the current HP CVS process and the current 18-24 month release cycle are both followed) a CVS-eligible release for another year or two after that. With an upgrade now, you might be able to load current ECOs through circa 2010 or 2011, in other words.

Stephen Hoffman
HoffmanLabs