ZENworks & time zone change in United States & Canada 2007

  • 3642878
  • 09-Mar-2007
  • 30-Apr-2013

Environment

Novell ZENworks
Novell ZENworks 7.5 Asset Management - ZAM7.5
Novell ZENworks 7 Asset Management - ZAM7
Novell ZENworks 7 Desktop Management - ZDM7
Novell ZENworks 7 Desktop Management on Linux - ZDML7
Novell ZENworks 7 Handheld Management - ZHM7
Novell ZENworks 7 Linux Management - ZLM7
Novell ZENworks Patch Management 6.3 - ZPM6.3
Novell ZENworks 7 Personality Migration
Novell ZENworks 7 Server Management - ZSM7
Novell ZENworks 7 Software Packaging
SecureWave Sanctuary

Situation

Are any modifications to the Novell ZENworks products necessary to accommodate the 2007 time zone change in the United States and Canada?

Resolution

The underlying operating system is primarily responsible for time zone and daylight saving settings for most ZENworks product components. This includes SecureWave Sanctuary which relies on having a properly updated Windows operating system.

Some ZENworks components use a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) which manages the time zone and daylight saving settings separately from the underlying operating system. ZENworks components that use a JRE instance should be updated to the correct time zone data using the Sun provided "tzupdater.jar" utility to prevent issues with the incorrect time zone settings being used. Steps to update these components are documented below in the section "Updating JRE 1.4.x using the tzupdater utility".


ZENworks product componenets that require a JRE time zone update include:
  • ZENworks 7 Linux Management currently uses Sun Java 1.4.2_06 or 1.4.2_11
  • ZENworks Linux Management Dell Edition currently uses Sun Java 1.4.2_06
  • ZENworks 7 Server Management on Windows and Linux currently uses Sun Java 1.4.1_03
  • ZENworks 7 Desktop Management Inventory currently uses 1.4.1_03
  • All instances of ZENworks that use ConsoleOne that currently uses Sun Java 1.4.1_01 which include:
ZENworks 7 Desktop Management
ZENworks 7 Server Management
ZENworks 7 Handheld Management
ZENworks Patch Management relies on the host operating system for DST changes, seePatchLink article 435andPatchLink article 438for details.

Updating JRE 1.4.x using the tzupdater utility

For JRE versions 1.4 or later, Sun has made available a tool that will modify the time zone data within the existing JRE. The name of the tool is "tzupdater" and can be found by going to
http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp.

NOTE: You will be required to setup a free user account with Sun to download the tool.

1. Once the tool is downloaded extract it and copy it to the /jre/bin directory of each server with the ZENworks product component installed.
Default directories include:
Windows: ZENworks\PDS\jre\bin {path to the ZENworks share first}
Linux: /usr/java/j2re1.4.1_03/bin {or similar path with a different version}

Note: NetWare servers require the NetWare Java updated. See
TID 3980430for full details.

2. Test the update process with the following command executed in the same directory as step 1 above:

java -jar tzupdater.jar -t

This step will execute a test only and report on the status of an update attempt. It will likely report a large number of errors with time zones missing. This is expected with an out of date JRE. If there are no errors your JRE is up to date already. You can also execute the above command with the "-v" verbose switch for additional information.

3. Update the JRE with the current time zone information by executing the following:

java -jar tzupdater.jar -u -v

This will update the timezone information and provide a verbose output.

4. After the tool has completed processing a successful update will be indicated by the two lines:

Validating the new time zone data... done.
Time zone data update is complete.

5. Repeating step 2 above can also be used to confirm that there are no errors and all updates are completed.

Status

Top Issue

Additional Information

Additional information on handling Daylight Saving Changes for all Novell Products is listed in:
TID 3094409 - (DST Master TID) Time zone and Daylight Saving Changes for Novell Products - 2006 and 2007
ZENworks could be impacted if the underlying operating system and Java components are not updated with the fixes listed above. ZENworks features that are time sensitive, such as schedules within application objects, policies or distributions may be affected.