Daylight Saving Time (DST) Changes for Australia (2006), Canada (2007), United States (2007) and Others

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Impact

Many countries around the world have, over two years from 2005 to 2007, been incrementally implementing legislation to change their daylight savings time (DST) dates and their time zone definitions.

As these changes come into force in each country, failure to modify the system time automatically may cause inaccurate system date and time which could lead to unpredictable consequences depending on system usage.

These changes include:

1. BugID 6226357 - tz2005o

Australia delaying the end of DST by one week for 2006 only to support the Commonwealth games. Instead of ending at 3am on March 25, 2006 it will end at 3am April 2, 2006.

2. BugIDs 6226357 and 6348147 - tz2005o

U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 implements change for the US. Starting in March 2007, DST in the United States will begin on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November.

3. BugID 6380398 - tz2006a

Canadian Provinces Quebec(QC), Ontario(ON), Nova Scotia(NS), Nunavut(NU), Manitoba(MB), New Brunswick(NB) and Prince Edward Island(PE) will follow US DST changes which will come into force in March 2007.

Note: This does not include the provinces Alberta(AB), British Columbia(BC), Newfoundland and Labrador(NL), Northwest Territories (NT) and Yukon(YK). Saskatchewan(SK) does not use DST and so is not impacted by this issue. At the time of going to press, Nunavut has not announced that it will be using the new US DST dates, but this change implements this change for the Nunavut timezone.

4. BugID 6440139 - tz2006n

The Canadian provinces Alberta(AB), British Columbia(BC), Newfoundland and Labrador(NL), Northwest Territories (NT) and Yukon(YK) will also follow US DST changes which will come into force in March 2007.

5. BugID 6497364 - tz2006p

Western Australia has introduced a three year trial of DST which started on Dec 3rd 2006 and ends on last Sunday in March.

6. BugID 6512648 - tz2007a

The Bahamas will also follow US DST changes which will come into force in March 2007.

Many more changes are implemented in the DST updates. See the details in the description field of the bugs for more information.

Note 1: Countries not affected by the DST rule changes are still advised to install the latest patches for the DST rule changes since applications running on systems in these countries may switch to other timezones programmatically on the fly, in order to meet some application-specific configuration or computation needs. These other timezones may well include timezones which are affected by these DST changes.

Note 2: In addition to the Solaris patches, certain mid-range servers also require firmware patches to correct the system controller. Please see Sun Alert 102617 at: http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-26-102617-1  for more details.

Note 3: Systems using the date and time calculation classes "RWDate", "RWTime", or "RWZoneSimple" from the Rogue Wave Tools.h++ library that is included with Sun C++ also need to see Sun Alert 102754 at: http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-26-102754-1 for more information.

Note 4: Systems running java applications which use the java-specific timezone information files require a recent maintenance patch level of the java runtime environment. See the following link for more information:

• http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Intl/USDST_Solaris.html

Note: This Sun Alert replaces the earlier Sun Alert 102178, originally published on 10 February, 2006

For more detailed information regarding DST, please see http://www.sun.com/dst

Contributing Factors

This issue can occur in the following releases:

Sparc Platform

• Solaris 2.5.1
• Solaris 2.6
• Solaris 7
• Solaris 8
• Solaris 9
• Solaris 10

x86 Platform

• Solaris 2.5.1
• Solaris 2.6
• Solaris 7
• Solaris 8
• Solaris 9
• Solaris 10

Symptoms

Users will experience incorrect system time or date after timezone changes go into effect.

Workaround

There is no easy way to avoid this issue. Attempts to change the TOD clock of the system are temporary and will not resolve all the time zone issues resolved by these patches. It is advised that the patches are installed to resolve the time zone changes.

Resolution

This issue is addressed in the following releases:

SPARC Platform

• Solaris 8 with timezone patch 109809-06 or later and libc patch 108993-52 or later
• Solaris 9 with timezone patch 113225-08 or later and libc patch 112874-33 or later
• Solaris 10 with timezone patch 122032-04 or later and libc patch 119689-07 or later

x86 Platform

• Solaris 8 with timezone patch 109810-06 or later and libc patch 108994-52 or later
• Solaris 9 with timezone patch 116545-06 or later and libc patch 114432-23 or later
• Solaris 10 with timezone patch 122033-04 or later and libc patch 121208-03 or later

Note 1: Once these patches are applied, at(1) jobs may not be scheduled correctly. This will happen if both the following conditions are met:

1. at(1) jobs have been submitted before patch installation.
2. Those jobs will be executed during the extended DST periods.

The extended periods for the U.S. DST are:

1. From the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in April.
2. From the last Sunday in October to the first Sunday in November.

at(1) jobs which meet these two conditions can be scheduled one hour later or earlier. Please run atq(1) to see if jobs are scheduled correctly after patch installation. If there are discrepancies, remove jobs using atrm(1), and resubmit the jobs.

Note 2: Once these patches are applied and the system rebooted, to complete the installation of these changes, systems which are running CDE calendar manager [dtcm(1)] or the CDE calendar server daemon [rpc.cmsd], will find that some scheduled events in the extended/changed DST period are incorrect by one hour.

This will happen if the following conditions are met:

1. Events were created before DST patch installation and reboot.
2. Those events were created while the CDE calendar manager was using a timezone which has been impacted by the changes described by this Sun Alert.
3. Those events were single events scheduled for dates in the extended/changed DST periods, or those events were recurring events for which the first instance of the event is in the extended/changed DST period.

To address this issue, recreate all single events in the affected time period and all recurring events for which the first instance of the event is in the affected time period.

Note 3: Vintage Solaris patches are available for a fee for Solaris 2.5.1, 2.6, and 7. These Vintage Solaris patches may be purchased via the normal Time and Materials process. For more details go to:

• http://www.sun.com/dst/

Click on the "Software" tab, then the "Solaris" link, and finally the "Feature Article" link to reach:

• http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/features/techtips/solaris_dst_addendum.jsp

Note 4: Those systems which are not in one of the affected timezones and not using any programs which switch to using one of the affected timezones will not need these patches.

Note 5: For systems using a subset of the changed timezones (listed in section 1 above), a lower release of these patches will suffice as listed below:

A) BugID 6226357 - tz2005o

Australia delaying the end of DST by one week for 2006 only.

Systems only requiring this change need only install the following timezone patches:

SPARC Platform

• Solaris 8 with patch 109809-02 or later
• Solaris 9 with patch 113225-03 or later
• Solaris 10 with patch 122032-01 or later

x86 Platform

• Solaris 8 with patch 109810-02 or later
• Solaris 9 with patch 116545-02 or later
• Solaris 10 with patch 122033-01 or later

B) BugIDs 6226357 and 6348147 - tz2005o

U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 implements change for the United States.

Systems only requiring these changes and using only the US timezones need only install the following timezone and libc patches:

SPARC Platform

• Solaris 8 with timezone patch 109809-02 or later and libc patch 108993-52 or later
• Solaris 9 with timezone patch 113225-03 or later and libc patch 112874-33 or later
• Solaris 10 with timezone patch 122032-01 or later and libc patch 119689-07 or later

x86 Platform

• Solaris 8 with timezone patch 109810-02 or later and libc patch 108994-52 or later
• Solaris 9 with timezone patch 116545-02 or later and libc patch 114432-23 or later
• Solaris 10 with timezone patch 122033-01 or later and libc patch 121208-03 or later

Note: Systems using POSIX timezones and using the DST POSIX option (eg TZ=PST8PDT) will need to install the libc patches to get the POSIX changes if they will be following the new US DST transition dates in 2007.

This will likely be systems in the US and Canada which are moving to the new DST dates and which are in the US timezones such as PST, CST etc.

However some systems, such as those in Mexico, where the timezone was common with the US but which will continue to follow the old dates for DST in 2007, should not use the new POSIX times zones delivered in these libc patches.

If such systems install these libc patches they should no longer use the POSIX style timezone. They would need to use Olson timezones only.

C) BugID 6380398 - tz2006a

Canadian Provinces Quebec(QC), Ontario(ON), Nova Scotia(NS), Nunavut(NU), Saskatchewan(SK) and Manitoba(MB), New Brunswick(NB), Prince Edward Island(PE) will follow the US DST changes.

Systems located in or using ONLY these Olson timezones need only install the following timezone patches. Systems using other timezones or using the US POSIX style timezones need to be sure to install the corresponding patches for all the timzones they require - both Olson and US POSIX:

SPARC Platform

• Solaris 8 with patch 109809-03 or later
• Solaris 9 with patch 113225-04 or later
• Solaris 10 with patch 122032-02 or later

x86 Platform

• Solaris 8 with patch 109810-03 or later
• Solaris 9 with patch 116545-03 or later
• Solaris 10 with patch 122033-02 or later

D) Bug 6440139 - tz2006n

Canadian provinces Alberta(AB), British Columbia(BC), Newfoundland and Labrador(NL), Northwest Territories (NT) and Yukon(YK) will follow US DST changes.

Systems located in or using ONLY these Olson timezones need only install the following timezone patches. Systems using other timezones or using the US POSIX style timezones need to be sure to install the corresponding patches for all the timzones they require - both Olson and US POSIX:

SPARC Platform

• Solaris 8 with patch 109809-04 or later
• Solaris 9 with patch 113225-05 or later
• Solaris 10 with patch 122032-03 or later

x86 Platform

• Solaris 8 with patch 109810-04 or later
• Solaris 9 with patch 116545-04 or later
• Solaris 10 with patch 122033-03 or later

E) BugID 6497364 - tz2006p

Western Australia three year trial of DST started on Dec 3rd 2006.

Systems located in or using ONLY these Olson timezones need only install the following timezone patches. Systems using other timezones or using the US POSIX style timezones need to be sure to install the corresponding patches for all the timzones they require - both Olson and US POSIX:

SPARC Platform

• Solaris 8 with patch 109809-05 or later
• Solaris 9 with patch 113225-07 or later
• Solaris 10 with patch 122032-03 or later

x86 Platform

• Solaris 8 with patch 109810-05 or later
• Solaris 9 with patch 116545-05 or later
• Solaris 10 with patch 122033-03 or later

F) BugID 6512648 - tz2007a

Bahamas adopts 2007 US DST dates.

Systems located in or using ONLY these Olson timezones need only install the following timezone patches. Systems using other timezones or using the US POSIX style timezones need to be sure to install the corresponding patches for all the timzones they require - both Olson and US POSIX:

SPARC Platform

• Solaris 8 with patch 109809-06 or later
• Solaris 9 with patch 113225-08 or later
• Solaris 10 with patch 122032-04 or later

x86 Platform

• Solaris 8 with patch 109810-06 or later
• Solaris 9 with patch 116545-06 or later
• Solaris 10 with patch 122033-04 or later

Modification History


Date: 15-JAN-2007

• Updated Resolution section

Date: 17-JAN-2007

• Updated Resolution section

Date: 19-JAN-2007

19-Jan-2007:

• Updated Resolution section

Date: 30-JAN-2007

• Updated Resolution section

Date: 13-FEB-2007

• Updated Impact and Resolution sections

Date: 20-FEB-2007

• State: Resolved
• Updated Resolution section

Date: 23-FEB-2007

• Updated Impact and Resolution sections

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