DST – Daylight Savings Time Support

In 2005 the Energy Bill, (The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (H.R. 6)) was signed into law. This bill mandated that Daylight Savings Time would be extended for a month annually. The mandated start date for the new DST regulation is 2AM on the second Sunday of March and the end date is at 2AM on the first Sunday of November. Canada will observe the new DST changes, but Mexico will not.

There are several ways to accommodate the new DST requirements with your Thoroughbred-based system.

1. Thoroughbred® Basic™ 8.6.0 supports the new DST requirements automatically. Upgrading to 8.6.0 Basic will update your system without requiring a recompiling of the programs. Please click here to view the other new 8.6.0 enhancements and features. To upgrade to 8.6.0, users will be required to exit and restart their Thoroughbred session, but the system will not need to be restarted or rebooted. Keep in mind, systems with hardware or operating systems not supported by a current 8.6.0 port listed below may need to be replaced or upgraded. Call your Thoroughbred Representative for additional information on operating system compatibility with 8.6.0. Upgrading to 8.6.0 can be done while the system is live, and will have no affect on any 3rd party software running on the system.
   
   Below is a list current 8.6.0 supported OSs.

   
   AIX         5.1
   
   HPUX        10.20 (also runs on 11)
               11i (Itanium)
   
   Linux       Redhat 7.1 – 2.4.2-2
               Redhat 9   - 2.4.20-8
               Suse  9.1  – 2.6.4
               Suse 10.1 – 2.6.16.21
   
   SCO         5.06
               5.07 
               6
   
   Windows     NT
               2000
               XP
               2003
               Vista
   

2. Modify your IPL statement. This is a temporary solution that uses a julian date format and will need to be adjusted annually. Adjusting the IPL statement will require the users to exit and restart their Thoroughbred session to get the proper time. Rebooting the entire system is not required. Upgrading the IPL statement can be done while the system is live. This upgrade will not affect any other software running on the system. The IPL upgrade method has been tested on 8.5.0 and greater versions of the Thoroughbred Environments. For more information about setting the IPL CNF statement, please click here to download the Basic Customization and Tuning Guide (System Files) and go to pages 24-27.



3. The Operating System Time Zone Variable (TZ) can be programmed to support the DST requirements. This is an operating system change that has system wide impact and can affect any program running on your system. You will need to check with your other software vendors to determine if a change to the TZ will be compatible with any non-Thoroughbred software you may be running on your system. Sample code for the TZ modification is TZ=EST5EDT,M3.2.0,M11.1.0 (this example uses the 2nd Sunday in March as the start date and the first Sunday in November as the end date). A TZ change may require a reboot of the system, and may affect other software currently running on your system. Please find below helpful links that may provide Operating System Time Zone upgrade support information (Thoroughbred will not update this information which is provided as a courtesy only):
   
   
   • Windows DST information available at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/timezone/dst2007.mspx
   • SCO UNIXware and Open Server DST Support: http://wdb1.sco.com/kb/search (type in DST Support)
   • IBM AIX DST Support information: http://www.ibm.com/support/us/
   • Linux (RedHat) DST Support: http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_80_7909.shtm
   • or, check with your operating system vendor for additional information.