Dont Be Left in the Dark by the Daylight-Saving Time Change

Plan remediation using a list of IT assets ranked from most important to least important. If your organization doesnt already have such a list, now is a good time to develop one.

When applying DST (daylight-saving time) patches, start with the operating system, then work your way through virtual machines (including Java virtual machines) and VMware images.

Remediate applications last, as they are more than likely getting their time from the operating system. If not, they should be fixed after the base OS is updated on DST rules so there is no conflict between time-keeping rules.

To test calendaring systems, set up several appointments triggered to start just after DST 2007 begins. Unfortunately, this means staying up until 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 11, to see how the appointments are handled. Be sure to schedule single-instance, da

As long as youre up, create a punch list of server, router, firewall and other high-value, log-generating assets. Starting at 2 a.m. on March 11, check the log files to see what time is being used by the devices.

Be sure to carefully flag and monitor any systems that require manual time changes to accommodate DST 2007. If these systems, or any components of these systems, consult an NTP (network time protocol) service, look out. If applications or devices are hard