Kronos Server Update March 2nd - Desktop Updates Required
Posted: 2007-02-28 02:46:37 Expiration: 2007-03-13 02:46:37
The Kronos production web servers are being updated Friday morning, March 2nd, to allow the application to handle the new DST rules correctly. User desktops accessing Kronos will have to JRE version 1.5.0_10 (or a newer version of 1.5.0_xx) in order to run Kronos after the updates.
The Energy Act of 2005 has changed the starting and ending dates for Daylight Saving Time (DST) starting in 2007. These changes will cause DST to start on the 2nd Sunday of March (rather than the 1st Sunday of April) and end on the 1st Sunday of November (rather than the last Sunday of October).
The Kronos service team will be installing the DST patches on the Kronos/Mytime systems on the morning of March 2nd. This will make the Mytime servers aware of the new rules, but it is also important that the desktop systems that connect to Mytime be updated to be aware of the new rules.
The following changes are needed in systems which access Kronos, some of which may occur automatically:
1. Kronos advises that the operating system should be updated to a version which is DST-aware.
Microsoft has posted a fix for XP on its website. This fix will be delivered as part of the automatic updates for February or can be installed manually. See Microsoft KnowledgeBase article 931836.
Microsoft has not posted a fix for Windows 2000, but has posted instructions for changing the TimeZone tables on Windows 2000 systems. This is a registry edit process. There is a freely available unofficial third party fix available for Windows 2000 at http://www.intelliadmin.com/blog/2007/01/unofficial-windows-2000-daylight.html Read the cautions on that website before using.
2. The JRE version on the desktop may also need to be updated.
Kronos/Mytime is presently distributing and requiring JRE 1.4.2_08 on the desktop. It is likely that many machines still have this version. However, Sun made a change in JRE, at version JRE 1.5.0_06, such that the Kronos servers could no longer determine the exact version running on the customer machine. Thus, the machines that presently access Kronos may be running JRE 1.4.2_08, or, may be running JRE 1.5.0_06 or newer.
Any machine that has automatic JRE updates turned on will likely now be at JRE version 1.5.0_11.
Once we install the DST patch on the Mytime servers, the servers will require that the desktops have JRE 1.5.0_10 (or a newer version of 1.5.0_xx). They will attempt to distribute 1.5.0_10 to desktops that do not comply.
Therefore, unless your desktop is already at 1.5.0_10, you need to make plans to upgrade your JRE version before the Mytime update. The upgrade can be done at any time, starting now, but must be done before the machine can connect to Mytime after the DST patch is installed on the Mytime servers.
-- Tamara Walker