--
Martin J. Moore 5555 Windward Parkway West
Digital UNIX Support Alpharetta GA 30201-7407
Digital Equipment Corporation 1-800-354-9000 x31679
martin_at_alf.dec.com DECATL::MARTIN
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The Year 2000/Millennium program for Digital UNIX provides for timely
availability of capabilities over several releases of the operating system.
Full
Year 2000/Millennium compliance is planned for the release prsently code named
"Steel." Steel is the next major functional release of Digital UNIX with
current
planned availability of December 1997. Although Digital UNIX will provide a
significant level of Year 2000/Millennium compliance prior to Steel, this
release will be used to coordinate rollout of layered products and Digital
Partner solutions for Year 2000/Millennium support as well as completing
testing
of all components of the operating system.
The internal design of Digital UNIX provides a robust date/time environment so
only minor enhancements are needed. However a systematic investigation of the
several million lines of code included in the operating system must be
completed
in order to ensure that all of the operating system components are Year
2000/Millennium compliant.
All of Digital's Alpha hardware systems are Year 2000/Millennium compliant now
and do not require any changes or modifications.
A detail which affects UNIX operating systems from all vendors is the way in
which systems keep track of time. The universal method for UNIX limits system
end-dates to the Year 2038. Digital is partipating in the work being done in
standards organizations to address this problem, will provide a timely
solution
to this date limitation consistent with the industry standards which result of
this work.
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on millennium compliance by version:
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Digital UNIX V4.0A - (Current shipping version) This release adds new features
to the date command that allow setting the system date forward into the next
century. The new date command enhancements add the ability to specify four
digits for the *year* in each of the date setting input formats and include a
sliding scale algorithm for interpretation of two-digit year input. These new
date command features are consistent with the Year 2000/Millennium
component of
the evolving X/Open UNIX98 brand. Testing shows that V4.0A will correctly and
automatically transition across the century boundary and operate normally with
system time beyond the Year 2000/Millennium. V4.0A should be used as the test
platform for Year 2000/Millennium compliance testing of layered applications
(see also note below on Patches for Early Versions).
Digital UNIX V4.0B - (Planned availability of December 1996) This release
offers
the same level of Year 2000/Millennium compliance as V4.0A.
Digital UNIX V4.0C - (Availability not yet scheduled but targeted for
mid-1997)
This release adds specific Year 2000/Millennium improvements that have been
identified through ongoing Year 2000/Millennium testing and involvement with
Standards Organizations addressing the Year 2000/Millennium issue. Examples of
these improvements include the extention of two-digit year interfaces to
four-digits (to specify the century). In addition, various Standard C Library
and other interfaces are being enhanced to provide compliance with evolving
Year
2000/Millennium standards.
Digital UNIX V4.* (Steel Release) - (Planned availablity of December 1997)
Field
Test will begin in June 1997. Steel is a Year 2000/Millennium fully compliant
release. This release, and all it's components, will be fully tested, modified
as necessary, and will be Year 2000/Millennium compliant. Steel includes a
Year
2000/Millennium search tool to assist in analyzing source code and symbol
tables
for potential Year 2000/Millennium problem areas and includes documented Year
2000/Millennium guidelines for application developers and testers. Steel will
also include documentation of Year 2000/Millennium improvements and compliance
as well as new coding guidelines and regression tests to ensure that
compliance
is maintained in future releases.
Year 2000/Millennium Patches for Early Versions - Year 2000/Millennium patches
for older versions of Digital UNIX are available now from the Customer Support
Centers. These patches include enhancements that provide the same level of
Year
2000/Millennium compliance for older versions of Digital UNIX which are
presently included with V4.0A. Patches are available for V2.0, V3.0,
V3.2(x) and
V4.0. These patches should be applied prior to using one of these versions for
Year 2000/Millennium layered Product testing.
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on Testing for the Year 2000/Millennium with Digital UNIX
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Customers concerned with the integrity of their information technology (IT)
environments as we approach the Year 2000 can begin now to examine the
behavior
of their Digital UNIX systems, software and applications. It is possible today
to identify potential areas of diffculty by testing software in an independent
system environment that simulates dates which may include the transition from
Decmeber 31, 1999 into January 1, 2000, and years beyond. The Digital UNIX
operating system permits customers to set the system clock forward and
backward,
which provides an appropriate environment for system testing. This paper
describes a method by which the current environment is protected while testing
applications for the Year 2000/Millennium.
Digital allows the clocks of its systems to be set to times in the future to
allow more effective and extensive customer testing of their software
around the
Year 2000/Millennium issue. Enhancements have been made to the Digital UNIX
date
command (in V4.0a) to support setting the system date past the year 1999.
Future
releases of Digital UNIX will contain these enhancements. However, customers
running on previous versions of Digital UNIX (or DEC OSF/1) as far back as
version 2.0 may also obtain the enhanced date command for their systems by
contacting their local Digital representative or customer support center.
Operating system components, middleware, applications and other layered
products
may be affected by a significant change in the system time, regardless of
whether it involves the Year 2000/Millennium. By following the procedure
outlined below, it is possible to minimize any unwanted or unexpected effects
that could occur as a result of system time modifications. It is highly
recommended that these guidelines be followed carefully to ensure system
integrity.
Caution
Testing procedures which significantly vary the system time
should be
conducted in an isolated environment. It is highly recommended that no such
tests be conducted on a system in a live production environment.
The procedure for system testing is as follows:
1. Check that all software license enforcement features installed - Product
Authorization Keys or PAKs - will not expire during the testing period. If
your
system has temporary keys, contact your software supplier.
2. Perform a complete backup of the system, including both system
disks and
associated data disks. Back up to spare disks drives, if possible.
3. Remove the system to be tested from the production environment (for
example, no cluster or network connections). This will ensure data integrity
during the test sessions.
4. Be sure that there are no pending batch or print jobs and that no
background processes are running unless they are to be included in the testing
activity.
5. If backup disks are being used, boot that backup copy of the system
disk
and mount the backup copies of any other data disks.
6. Use the enhanced date command to set the system clock date forward to
the testing date. For example, set the date to December 31, l999, and observe
the effects of the transition to January 1, 2000.
NOTE: The system date should only be set in single-user mode. Also, when
changing the year, it is important to update the system disk with this
information. In single-user mode enter the command:
mount -u /
after you enter a date containing a new year. The mount -u / command
writes the new year into the superblock on the system disk. The root
filesystem
is now mounted read/write.
7. Initialize and conduct the test sequence(s) for the specific
environment.
8. When testing is complete, note your test results and use the enhanced
date command to reset the system clock to the current time.
9. Perform one of the following procedures:
If backup disks were used for the testing, shut down the system,
mount
and restore the original system disk (and associated data disks). If used
media
other than backup disks for the testing (ie. tape), restore the original
system
disk (and all original data disks) from the backup tapes.
10.Reboot the restored system.
----
hope this is of help!
regards,
Matt
matthew.calthrop_at_reuters.com
Guy Dallaire
dallaire_at_total.net
"God only knows if god exists"
Received on Mon May 12 1997 - 19:49:10 NZST
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