Day Light Savings (DST) Alert

As a result of the US Energy Policy Act of 2005, beginning in 2007 the US Daylight Saving Time (DST) period is being extended. Original DST start and end dates programmed into operating systems and into Java software will be incorrect. As a result, adjustments to the new dates become necessary.

Equivalent changes are being introduced in other countries as well, currently including Canada, Bermuda, and the Bahamas. Changes to DST arrangements have also taken place recently in Brazil and Western Australia, where similar considerations apply to software.

Clients with Java applications that are sensitive to time and date information will have to take preventive action to ensure that all the relevant time and date calculations are correct.

Scope of the Changes

The changes being made to the Java SDK/JRE for time zone adjustments are independent of those necessary for Operating Systems (OS). However, for customers to be sure that their applications will work successfully after the DST change-over in March 2007, they must have both OS fixes and the Java fixes applied on their systems.

The Operating System always provides the current clock time on the (server) system that is running the application. For the system clock to jump correctly on the night that DST starts or ends, the OS must be able to handle the change required in the server's time zone. Any change to DST start or end dates requires an upgraded OS, or the application of an OS patch, so that the clock time jumps correctly on the correct date. If this is not in place, the customer will have to change the system clock manually.

For Java applications, the basic clock time is always taken from the OS, but the DST time zone adjustments to it are picked-up only from the JRE/SDK, not from the OS.

For these reasons, Progress Software Corporation recommends that if you have determined that a fix is needed for the March 2007 DST changes, you should always apply both the Java fix and the OS fix. The sequence in which they are applied does not matter, but you should have both sets of fixes in place before starting to test if your applications will function correctly during the critical window of 11 March to 1 April 2007.

If you are using Microsoft Windows, you should be aware that the Microsoft supplied timezone.exe tool can cause problems with IBM Java JRE/SDKs. See Additional guidance for IBM products on Microsoft Windows for more information.

Operating System Changes

Details on the Operating System fixes required for the various supported platforms can be obtained from the appropriate OS vendor. The links below will assist to determining the fixes or patches that will be required for each supported platform:

• Microsoft Windows
• Sun Solaris**
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• SuSE Enterprise Linux
• IBM AIX
• HP-UX

Java Runtime Changes

The Java vendors (Sun, IBM and HP) are providing patched versions of the Java JRE/SDKs to fix the DST issues. They are also providing a number of utilities to allow users to patch their existing Java installations to apply the DST fixes. These utilities should be used if you are not in a position to introduce a new, patched, version of a Java JRE/SDK into your Sonic product environment. The following links will assist you to determine which type of fix is best for your environment:

• Sun Java**
• IBM Java
• HP Java

Each link will provide the appropriate vendor-specific information regarding DST-ready JRE/SDK releases and the alternative use of the in-place upgrade tool for DST fixes.

If you are using an IBM JRE/SDK on Microsoft Windows, you will need to ensure that the Registry entries used by the IBM JRE/SDK are modified for the new DST start and finish dates. Further details about addressing the DST changes for the IBM JRE/SDK on Microsoft Windows Operating Systems can be found via the following IBM document; Java Daylight Saving Time: Known problems and Workarounds.

How this affects your Progress Sonic Products

Progress Software Corporation is testing all of the Sonic products to ensure that they will operate correctly on both the updated versions of the Java JRE/SDKs and also on the existing supported JRE/SDKs that have been patched in-place using the utilities provided by the Java vendors.

Therefore, the supported versions of Java JRE/SDKs on the various Operating Systems are shown in the following table.

Updated Versions of Java JRE/SDK

The following updated Java JRE/SDKs are supported:

NOTE: For the IBM JVM 1.4.2 on Windows, click here to run the IBM Timezone Update utility for Java.

Patched Versions of Java JRE/SDK

Progress Software Corporation will continue to support the Sonic products on the following Java JRE/SDKs. However, the DST update utilities must be applied to these JRE/SDKs to fix the DST change issues.