Does anyone have an automated solution for the twice-yearly time adjustments for daylight savings?
It is not very convenient to have to manually adjust it at 2:00 am on a Sunday morning.
Solved
Yearly time change automation
Best answer by ShawnBerk
We have set the time changes up as Scheduled Database Tasks for the next 5 years, one for each site and for their respective time zones according to whatever regional scheme that site follows.
This in turn calls a task to update the Site time offset according to their time relative to the server location.
Instron Set Site Offset is then a custom API that does the work of setting the correct offset at the appropriate time just prior to the daylight savings time switch which is triggered by the scheduled task. So what IFS is telling you is likely the only solution, we just have a really good programmer who did the work in house without going through them.
+3Hi -
I just asked IFS this question a couple of weeks ago. The answer was not good. They offered to charge us to set up some custom events and LU’s using migration API’s, but really this solution is not good. It would require maintaining a manual schedule of locations and time zones, and when daylight savings time changes for each location or does not.
Daylight savings time is complex because not all geographic locations honor it, and they certainly don’t change on the same schedule. We have multiple locations spanning 10 time zones, so this can get complex really fast. For example, the time zone the server is in may go off or on Daylight savings time, while other locations do not, or other locations can go on/off when the server does not. Attempting to keep this data straight for all locations would be very time consuming. It also may change at anytime due to local regulations changing.
We were constantly having time stamp issues with various sites because of this.
Ultimately we ended up writing a custom service to update all sites using google API’s to determine the proper offset.
I’d be curious if anyone has a better solution.
B
We have set the time changes up as Scheduled Database Tasks for the next 5 years, one for each site and for their respective time zones according to whatever regional scheme that site follows.
This in turn calls a task to update the Site time offset according to their time relative to the server location.
Instron Set Site Offset is then a custom API that does the work of setting the correct offset at the appropriate time just prior to the daylight savings time switch which is triggered by the scheduled task. So what IFS is telling you is likely the only solution, we just have a really good programmer who did the work in house without going through them.
ShawnBerk,
This is what I was hoping to hear.
Do you know if your developer utilized the SITE_API in his custom API to update the records, or was it all custom? I’m hoping it is just a matter of updating the OFFSET column in the SITE_TAB table.
Yes, it is just the SITE_API modify function, and only to change the offset field by the predetermined value from the parameter in the scheduled task. It doesn’t take the work out of calculating the offset or the day to change, but it just allows updating the field at 0200 instead of an IT ops person having to do it after midnight but before 0200 so it all stays in the same day. We like simple and straightforward and try to steer away from custom.
+3Hi
That’s a good solution using IFS, minus you have to maintain a table of sites and execution times. And if it changes, then you have to maintain that. Or if the schedule changes and you don’t realize it, then the times will be set incorrectly.
Reply
Enter your E-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.