Veritas-bu

[Veritas-bu] NetBackup and New Daylight Saving Time Rules

2007-01-10 14:23:16
Subject: [Veritas-bu] NetBackup and New Daylight Saving Time Rules
From: jstephens at ti.com (Stephens, John)
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2007 13:23:16 -0600
I submitted a ticket with Symantec on this issue.  Here is there
response.

John Stephens
jstephens at ti.com

========================================================================
==============



Known issues for the NetBackup Java Administration console (all
versions):
All currently supported versions of NetBackup (5.0, 5.1, 6.0) use the
Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 1.4.0 for the NetBackup Java
Administration console. The JRE does not use the operating systems time
zone database.  Instead it has it's own implementation of time zone
information and DST rules.

Version 1.4.0 of the JRE does not contain the updated time zone
information for 2007 and will cause the NetBackup Java Administration
console to switch to DST on the wrong day.  This will cause any reports
in the NetBackup Java Administration console to report the wrong start
and end times for jobs in the Activity Monitor.  The NetBackup Java
Administration also passes time zone information to other NetBackup
commands such as bpplinfo, bpschedule, bpplsched, bppllist, and
bpplschedrep using the -tzo setting.  This can potentially impact the
scheduling of backups.

The upcoming NetBackup 6.5 release has an upgraded JRE version 1.4.2,
which has accounted for the new DST rules.  Hence this issue would not
exist in NetBackup 6.5.  There are workarounds to solve the problem for
the NetBackup 6.0 and 5.x releases.  


Workarounds for known DST issues:
There are two options for updating the JRE to properly handle the
transition to and from daylight savings time.  


Option1: Using tools to update the JRE Time Zone Database
There are tools available from Sun, IBM, HP to correct the time zone
database in the Java Runtime Environment. It will be necessary to
download and  run this tool in order to update the NetBackup
implementation of the JRE.

For Solaris and Linux systems go to:
http://java.sun.com/javase/tzupdater_README.html 


a) Under the Installation section select the link to the Sun Java SE
download site

b) On the downloads page select the JDK US DST Timezone Update Tool -
1.0 from the list to download the update tool.  

b) It will be necessary to log in using a valid Sun Online account to
download.  There is an option to register and create a new account if
needed.

c) Once you are logged in agree to the license, this is required to
download the tool.

d) Click on the Java(TM) 2 SDK, Standard Edition - US DST timezone tool
1.0.0 to download the tzupdater-1_0_0.zip file

e) Extract the files to a temporary directory on the system. (ex.
/tmp/javatz on Solaris and Linux, C:\javatz on Windows)

f) Update the NetBackup implementation of the JRE.

For Solaris and Linux systems:

# cd /usr/openv/java/jre/bin

# ./java -jar /tmp/javatz/tzupdater2006p/tzupdater.jar -u -v

For Windows systems:

% cd <install_dir>\VERITAS\Java\jre\bin

% java -jar C:\javatz\tzupdater2006p\tzupdater.jar -u -v


For AIX systems go to:
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/java/jdk/dst/index.html 

a) Click on the download link for the appropriate platform

b) Extract the files to a temporary directory on the system (ex.
/tmp/javatz)

c) Edit the /tmp/javatz/runjtzuenv.sh file and set the configuration
values

JAVA_HOME=/usr/openv/java/jre

NOGUI=false

DISCOVERONLY=true

d) Launch the IBM Time Zone Update Utility for Java.  This is a GUI
utility and the system DISPLAY setting must point to a valid system.

# export DISPLAY=<hostname>:0

# sh /tmp/javatz/runjtzu.sh

e) Select Interactive Mode and click Start

f) Enter the location of the NetBackup implementation of the JRE
(/usr/openv/java/jre/bin) and click Update

g) Select Exit once the upgrade is complete


For HP-UX systems go to:
http://www.hp.com/products1/unix/java/DST-US.html 

a) Click on the JDK - TZupdater 1.0 link

b) Accept the license and fill in the required contact information then
click Finish

c) Download the tzupdater_1.0.tar file

d) Extract the files to a temporary directory on the system (ex.
/tmp/javatz)

e) Update the NetBackup implementation of the JRE.

# cd /usr/openv/java/jre/bin

# ./java -jar /tmp/javatz/tzupdater.jar -u -v


For Tru64 platform, there are no tools available for updating the
timezone database. There is no updated JRE available for this platform
with the DST fixes. So Tru64 will continue to have the issue for 6.5
release as well.  Hence the second workaround as suggested below will be
the only way to resolve the problem for Tru64.



Option2: Manually changing the DST through the Java GUI
The following steps can be manually performed in the GUI to work around
this issue:

1. Launch the NetBackup Java Administration console.

2. Go to File > Adjust Application Time Zone... 

3. Check the Use custom time zone box to set a custom time zone.

4. Verify the base time zone and offset are set correctly.  These should
be inherited from existing time zone.

5. Under the Daylight savings time starts section select Absolute date
from the Use method: pull down.  Then enter the correct Month, day and
time that daylight savings time will begin. (Figure 1)

6. Repeat these steps for the Daylight savings time ends section.

7. Check the Save as default time zone box to make the change permanent.

8. Repeat these steps for any other system running the NetBackup Java
Administration console.

Since the start dates for DST vary each year, these steps will need to
be repeated each year to ensure DST occurs on the correct dates.