Daylight Savings Time
As a result of federal legislation in 2005, there will be changes in the beginning and ending dates of Daylight Savings Time (DST). It will begin 3 weeks earlier in the spring and end 1 week later in the fall. The new dates:
2:00 AM, Sunday, March 11, 2007 (2nd Sunday of March): Clocks are set forward 1 hour. DST begins.
2:00 AM, Sunday, November 4, 2007 (1st Sunday of November): Clocks are set back 1 hour. DST ends.
The passage of time is a very important event in computing and network environments. In many cases, time is used as a unique identifier or stamp on electronic data and information.
Please do not change the time on your College of Management Computing Services (COM-CS) supported computer unless notified by COM-CS personnel. Doing so could cause access problems with the COM and campus computing environment.
Campus-level modifications are being made to numerous systems to address the upcoming changes. However, localized modifications must be made as well.
COM-CS Measures:
We are implementing automated patches for COM-CS supported faculty and staff computers. We anticipate deploying these by February 16, 2007. Most of you will have the modifications on your system by February 23, 2007. We will monitor deployment per machine and verify that it is successful. All you need to do is use your machine normally.
We anticipate COM-CS supported computers in the COM labs, classrooms, and graduate offices will have updates in place by February 16, 2007.
Department-level laptops will be handled by Lynn Rasmussen and Carlos Sanford. Department offices will be contacted with more information.
We can only patch the software that is in the COM standard software suite (http://mgt.ncsu.edu/computing_services/supported_software.php) and delivered via the NAL (Network Application Launcher). If you have installed software not in the suite, check if the software is affected by the new time change and whether it has its own updates. If the software gets its time information from the operating system, then you do not have to be concerned about patching it.
RECOMMENDATIONS
If you are using your GroupWise calendar or the campus brickyard (Oracle) calendar system, it is recommended that you include the start and stop times in the description of any meetings that you coordinate or schedule. This is especially important for events scheduled during the March 11 to April 1 time frame.
If you own or manage your own computer, then you are responsible for determining the products on your system that make use of time changes, acquiring the patches/fixes for those products, and applying them to your system. At this time, COM-CS has found no vendors that are providing these patches/fixes through completely automated means so you will need to find and apply them on your own. Do not assume that you will get them because you have automated software updates turned on.
Expect to see additional information as it becomes available. COM-CS will announce the release of the patches since they will most likely show up on your screen at odd times. At this time, we anticipate the interruption to you to be minimal, probably in the range of 5 seconds or less. Of course, that will vary depending on the speed of your computer.
Patches will be done off-hours in the classrooms and will have no impact on classes in progress.
If you have questions or concerns about the upcoming time change event and its potential impact, please feel free to contact Donna Barrett or other COM-CS personnel at http://mgt.ncsu.edu/departments_offices/offices/computing_services.php
Further information about DST at NCSU is at http://ncsu.edu/dst/