Exchange and Daylight Saving Time 2007
Published Nov 13 2006 12:38 PM 2,728 Views

As many of you know, there will be a change next year in the transition dates for US daylight saving time. I won't go into all the gory details here, but if you want them follow this link http://www.microsoft.com/windows/timezone/dst2007.mspx This site will be updated to provide all the latest information about daylight saving time, including updates from Microsoft products affected by daylight saving time, as well as links to KB articles when they are available.

The Exchange team, along with Windows and Office have been giving this a lot of attention. We will be providing, free of charge, a solution for Exchange products in mainstream support. This solution will consist of changes in CDO to support these new dates as well as rebasing tool for calendar items that are already existent in users calendars. This rebasing tool is a server side tool. There will also be a client side tool available from Outlook. For products that are no longer under Mainstream support, these non-security updates will only be offered to customers that have an Extended Hotfix Agreement. For more information on the current support status of your Microsoft products and the Support Lifecycle Policy, please visit http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle.

- Elizabeth Scott

76 Comments
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This is a hot topic for me right now too. Will these tools come out before or after the release of the Daylight Savings Time Patch through Microsoft Update and the other channels?
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The tools will be available after the first of the year.  After the OS patch and after the Exchange CDO patch
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  Can you post a info or a link on how this will affect Exchange 2000, specifically what happens if it isn't patched.
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For unpatched E2k, your meetings will be off by one hour for the three weeks that DST transition has shifted.  There is a way to mitigate that issue.  Outlook is producing a similar rebasing tool to the Exchange rebasing tool, only it is client side.  This tool uses MAPI to access data files directly and will work with versions of Outlook 2000 and beyond.  if your customer is using one of these versions of Outlook, they can rebase their calendars without the CDO patch, They will need the Windows registry fix, but if they are not entitled to that there are some directions contained in the KB article about how to patch the registry manually.
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 My question is why won't a rebasing tool be made available for Exchange 2000, I understand that Exchange 2000 is in extended support but so isn't Outlook 2000.  Also a CDO patch was issued over the summer that addressed the DST issue in Australia due to the commonwealth games, why won't one be made for this change in the US?

  Will there be a hotfix developed that will be made available to Essential and Premier support customers?  
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The Outlook tool will cover most versions of Outlook and has the same functionality.  We there will be a CDO fix for 2000 and 5.5 for customers that have Extended Support for 2000 and Custom Support for 5.5
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 I assume that the client side calendar rebasing tool willl have to be run on every client, for my company that is close to a 1000 users.   That is alot of man hours.  It appears that if you do not have extended support in place currently and do not have an SA you can't purchase an Extended Hotfix Agreement.  
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I am writing you this letter to let you know that I do not favor having extended daylight savings time.  I would rather observe it during the warmest part of the year to have lighter evenings then.  I think March is too soon to enter daylight savings time because the weather can still be a bit chilly  and would rather wait to have it start later in the spring after it warms up.  By October I am sick of having lighter evenings after having them for several months and would rather leave daylight savings time then.  I think daylight savings time should start the first Sunday in April and end the first Sunday in October.  My name is Sam Todd and my e-mail address is ddotmas AT hotmail DOT com

Sincerely,


Samuel A. Todd
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What happens if we begin the process of applying the Outlook/client side registry fix now then later a patch is applied to Exchange Server 2000 that  fixes this issue?   I would hope everything would be OK?
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you will need the registry fix, the Exchange side fix and the outlook fix to make everything right.  there will be some comprehensiveguidlines posted soon on Microsoft.com.  i will update the blog when the info is available
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Thanks for your input.  If you wouldn't mind, please paint the picture of what happens if the Outlook client side is patched and the Exchange 2000 server isn't (since I don't have extended fix support).
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We have over 30,000 users and not having the code until January is really a problem.  Even if we can't get the code, is there some more technical detail that can be shared?  Example, users of Outlook 2007 RTM have gotten what appears to be a randomly timed pop-up asking about a time zone change and if they want to send updates.  Does the Exchange side patch do this piece for clients?
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The Exchange tool is a server side tool and will be used by Admins.

For the question about the Outlook tool being used but the Exchange 2000 server not being patched, you will have to use the Outlook tool to move your meeting everytime you schedule one
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I've been looking into my situation with my Exchange 2000 / Windows 2000 server and this change to the 2007 DST start/end dates.

I see MS has published at least a proceedure to manually adjust the timezone settings in Windows 2000 via the TZEdit.exe utlity.

Why can't at minimum the same be done for Exchange 2000?? Im my case, we're slated for a third quarter 2007 upgrade to Exchange 2007, and reality is we can't get it done sooner, nor do I feel we should just for this issue as MS can help us out rather easily.

Lastly, my impression is that as long as the OS on the Exhange 2000 server and Outlook clients is set to conform to the 2007 DST changes, Outlook calendar items will be fine. Its OWA that will be in trouble as it leverages CDO on the Exchange 2000 server, and CDO keeps a separate timezone table from that of the Exchange server's OS. Is this correct?

Thanks.
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One more thought..

It looks like the US law changing 2007 DST was enacted in August of 2005. Exchange 2000 mainstream support was valid until 12/31/2005. Why would Microsoft not honor its obligation to resolve this DST change issue having known about since then??? I can see them not releasing the patch right away, but telling customers basically "tough luck" does not sit well with me.

This could be viewed this as MS not living up to their product support commitment, or taking this underhanded opportunity to "push" customers to a new purchase.

Corporate email is a key component of my company's network services. MS had better realize that it is trusted by corporate customers to provide products and support that allows businesses to focus on their main task, that being something other than worrying about something as straight forward as this DST thing.

Come on MS, do the right thing here...
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let me respond to your post on 12/21 first.  You are correct in your assumption that applications, like OWA, that use CDO will be off by one hour.  By using a combination of the OS patch and the Outlook tool and the Exchange server side tool you could manage fairly well during the three week change.  It would be an on-going managment task, not just a one time effort.  There will be public info on this within the next week.
As to your posting on 12/28, I am not part of the organization with in MS that sets these policies, thusly making it inappropriate for me to respond
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Although enacted in August 2005, the law technically did not take effect until 2006 because it contained a provision that allowed Congress to decide not to implement it. See (c) and (d) below:

SEC. 110. DAYLIGHT SAVINGS.
(a) AMENDMENT.—Section 3(a) of the Uniform Time Act of 1966
(15 U.S.C. 260a(a)) is amended—
(1) by striking ‘‘first Sunday of April’’ and inserting ‘‘second
Sunday of March’’; and
(2) by striking ‘‘last Sunday of October’’ and inserting ‘‘first
Sunday of November’’.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Subsection (a) shall take effect 1 year
after the date of enactment of this Act or March 1, 2007, whichever
is later.
(c) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 9 months after the
effective date stated in subsection (b), the Secretary shall report
to Congress on the impact of this section on energy consumption
in the United States.
(d) RIGHT TO REVERT.—Congress retains the right to revert
the Daylight Saving Time back to the 2005 time schedules once
the Department study is complete.
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I am a little confused and looking for guidance.  Our company has Exchange server 2003 running on a Win 2k3 Server.  I will patch this in January when availalbe.  Our client workstations run Windows XP which have the DST patch.  However, those XP workstations are running Outlook 2000 sp3 Client.  Will the calendars be o.k., or, because they are running Outlook 2000 client will there be issues?  
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Hello,

Here are my replies to the last two posts.

First, to Elizabeth:
Thanks for the information. It sounds like a complicated process to try and keep everything in check manually, especially since we also run Blackberry Enterprise server. Understood on your inability to respond to MS' policy.

Secondly, to Ray:

OK, I think I can safely say that MS knew about the required DST changes in the Exchange 2000 product as of August 2005. When it "technically" took affect is irrelevant.

Again I expect MS to make good on its support of Exchange 2000 as it knew of this forthcoming issue while Exchange 2000 was still in mainline support. If the plan back then was not to make good on the patch, why not have let us know right then and there?

As of today, I now see there IS a patch out, but ONLY for customers with an extended support agreement. Not good. This is a less than scrupulous way to "push" users off Exchange 2000.

It isn't that we don't want to upgrade, far from it. Like any decent sized company, we spend a large part of our time (and money) doing just that. We do, however, try to co-ordinate upgrades of major systems (like Exchange) such that we "wear out" both hardware and software simultaneously, thereby avoiding riskier in-place upgrades. In this case that means Exchnage 2007 this summer.

We spend a large portion of our budget on technology, with the lion's share going to Micorsoft. The least we expect in return is solid, trustworthy support. If MS does not make this patch available to all its Exchange 2000 customers, then it makes me question my ability to trust them with my organization's needs in the future.
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Hello,

I agree with JackC completely.  We are doing our upgrade of Exchange 2000 in the summer too.  But right now we don't have extended support and can't buy one.  How can MS expect us to trust their support in the future?!
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In regards to this comment:

~~~~~
KW said:
Hello,

I agree with JackC completely.  We are doing our upgrade of Exchange 2000 in the summer too.  But right now we don't have extended support and can't buy one.  How can MS expect us to trust their support in the future?!
~~~~~

Microsoft made this policy about non related security years ago.  If you did not have the common sense to upgrade, that is your fault.  Microsoft's lifecycle support policy is quite clear on when support for products end.  If you are a decent administrator, read it and stop whining.
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I'm also a bit concerned about the impact of these fixes.  At this point, I've applied the patch to my XP client, but nothing to my servers or Exchange.  Now, my appointments (which showed up fine before) no show up an hour late (not early) during the time periods in question.  No mention of this on the MS site, but I've seen a few postings of others with the issue.

MS's "comprehensive" DST page doesn't mention anything along these lines.  Disappointing.  :(
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In reply to Englebert Humperdick,

I guess you haven't work for large environment before.  There are many restriction in regards to upgrade and implementation of any systems that's beyond the administrator's control.  I am not here to whine about it to anyone (except the government), just expressing my disappointment towards how MS had handle this particular case.
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In reply to Englebert:

Look, I run a large network with lots of servers. Depending on when a server is built, a particular version of an OS and app(s) are installed.

Then the idea is to keep it all running smoothly, securely,.....yada yada yada. If we're lucky enough, we size a box such that it runs fine for three years or so, and then migrate off to new hardware, OS, apps etc.

I do run MS products sometimes into extended support, but by then a plan to migrate off is firmly in place. Testing and such follows in a lab. Finally, it goes to production hopefully to run for another three years. The goal all the while being data integrity and system availability, and affording me enough time to do my other administrative duties. That's the way its done in the real world.

MS knew back in August 2005 that this would be an issue, but decided not to take care of the Exchange 2000 folks anyway. No warning either. I'd be whining if I was looking for something for nothing, but that's not the case here. My organization plunked down thousands of dollars for Exchange 2000, and counted on support for issues known during mainline phase, not an "oh well" on something like this. Oh right, just plunk down thousands more, upgrade at MS' command, and don't whine...

I take offense to your insinuation of not being a decent admin, but I'll drop it at that as I've got better ways to use my time. One thing I will say is Microsoft has so far dropped the ball on this, but then again that's obvious to anyone with common sense.
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  I agree with JackC, in my previous post I pointed out the inconsistence with the support policy specifically around the distribution of the hotfix for the DST transition in Australia for 2006 the patch was posted for Exchange 2000 on 3/8/2006. This was after mainstream support ended for Exchange 200 per Microsoft’s stated policy.  

Elizabeth I understand you do not make the decisions regarding distribution of patches, but maybe you can provide me with the contact info of the person I should contact?
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Entitlement for hotfixes is determined by the contract and that the hotfix is produced within the period that the contract covers.  Let's take the example of the commonwealth games first, as that is easier to understand.  The patch for the commonwealth games was publicly posted on 3/8/2006, but was produced in Oct. and available to Premier customers who called in and requested it because their TAMs can look at my bug database and see what is coming.  It was posted in March because that is when the KB article was written to go along with the patch.

now, if we take a similar approach to E2k, we could have produced an update a while back, but it wouldn't be applicable today, as hotfixes are cummulative and it would be so out of date, that it probably wouldn't work.  Also, the new patch is dependant on the dynamic keys in the registry which didn't exist then either.  The net/net is that anything that we would have developed when E2k was in mainstream support would not adequatly address this issue.
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JackC

If you see this - could you email me? ninob_AT_microsoft_DOT_com. Would like to understand more about what you are saying. Thanks!
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Replying to Elizabeth:
I can see how challenging handling the Exchange 2000 DST patch must have been, what with the fact that the need to produce it was know as of 08/2005, but technical aspects required MS to wait until recently to do. So, I do get the idea about the timing of the patch release from a system requirements perspective.

That being said, I don't follow MS' logic of now only providing the Exchange 2000 patch to customers who have extended support contracts. I hate to beat this to death, but MS knew this was coming for Exchange 2000 back in August of 2005. They should now, in good faith, honor their product support committment (from back then) by releasing the patch to all Exchange 2000 customers, or they should have advised us back then that we would never be seeing one.

If Exchange 2000's design required waiting until now to release the patch, then so be it, just make it available to all who need it. Again, it come down to trust and committment going both ways.

Also, I just want to take a moment to thank you for all your replies. Although I can't accept the current situation, its no reflection on you. Thanks
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Microsoft is now telling us that we should wait and deploy the OS and Outlook client fixes at the same time.  Does anyone know what we should do about timing any Exchange server updates for DST 2007?  By the way, there is a tool available http://www.sharpebusinesssolutions.com/dst2007.htm that can handle both the supported and unsupported Microsoft OS versions for DST 2007.
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Elizabeth Scott -

Can you expand on your post of Jan. 3?  You seem to imply that by patching the server and client OS's, plus using the client Outlook tool, then only E2k OWA will be off (as JackC said).  Can you confirm that?

Also, is the server side tool you mention part of the hotfix (only available with Ext HotFix agreement), or available seperately?

Thanks for the info.
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Now that the DST patch for Exchange 2003 SP2 is out, when can we expect the Exchange rebasing tool to be released?
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For me the biggest problem in it all is that you can't even purchase Extended Hotfix Support for Exchange 2000 any more, that perid was for three months after Mainstream supported ende and it ended December 2005. Seriously, what does Microsoft expect large corporatoions to do here?
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For those of you that feel the update shoud be free because it was announced in 2005, let's think this thing through...

Let's say MS releases the fix prior to Exchange 2000 ending mainstream.  So now you have the fix, but you can't apply it for a year and a half.  So now it's 2007, and you apply it, and something doesn't occur as expected, or something goes wrong.   It's 2007, and support is over.  Would you be okay with that?  Of course not, you'll be expecting support.    So the fact that the fix is now available and not then is irrelevent.  Offering a fix knowing there would be no support for it when it was implimented... that would be irresponsible.

It's a bad situation, I agree.  But I can't really fault MS for not willing to eat the costs of modifying and supporting an outdated product because Uncle Sam decided we needed 4 more weeks of DST, and we needed it right away. I guess I missed that march on Washington.
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Maybe this is not the right forum for this but, bottom line - the research and work that will go into creating a patch for Exchange 2000 is already done or close to it. I don't think my company would object to paying a nominal fee for this(few hundred bucks). But since the work is already done why not generate some goodwill and release this to the masses. I realize MS wants us to migrate to the latest version (and we are E2K7) but I'm a MS guy and the UNIX people here are gonna eat this up use it against our MS team. It's going to go over very bad...
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I have a couple of questions.
We are running Exchange 5.5 on Server 2000.
We have a separate box that is hosting OWA for Exchange 5.5 (OWA only, Exchange is not on that box).

1) All of our servers get time from an Internet Time source, and our workstation do also. Shouldn't this change the DST on the correct date? (In terms of the O/S?). If this is the case, why is there a need for patches?

2) Since we run OWA on a separate box (W2K) and Exchange 5.5 on a separate box (W2K) do the CDO issues still apply with regards to writing/reading email through the OWA box.
Thanks in advance for your replies.
- Ian
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Once again, customers suffer with Microsoft products due to poor design.  DST should be handled by the OS, not Exchange.  Just another forced upgrade from Exchange 2000 to 2003 or 2007.

Thanks for screwing us again, Microsoft.  It is simply irresponsible to not release this patch for Exchange 2000 customers.

-Jeff
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Sorry it has been so long since i updated.  I have been traveling.  Here is some news that i think will be well received.

To help customers through this change and in response to their feedback, Microsoft has decided to amend the regular Extended Hotfix Support program to add a new pricing category for extended non-security hotfixes with a wide customer demand. The new pricing category will be applied to the daylight saving time hotfixes (DST 2007).  



·         DST 2007 hotfixes for products in Mainstream Support remain available at no charge. Customers should continue to visit the web site where all public information is posted as available:  www.microsoft.com/dst2007.

·         Customers can purchase the DST 2007 set of hotfixes for a single fee of $4,000 for products in Extended Support. This change applies to products like Windows 2000 that have been in Extended Support since June of 2005.  This change is made under a new pricing category of extended non-security hotfixes that have a wider customer demand.



·         Customers who require technical assistance on DST 2007 can contact their Technical Account Manager or they may contact Customer Service and Support (CSS) directly and receive a technical support incident at no charge.



·         CSS is handling DST calls today. Customers who wish to purchase hotfixes for products in Extended Support will be asked to call back on Monday, January 29 when CSS is operationally ready to begin processing those transactions.



·         For customers who have previously purchased DST 2007 hotfixes, Microsoft will reimburse the difference to them under the new pricing category.

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 Elizabeth,

  Can you confirm whether or not there are any stipulations to this new pricing category?  Specifically did the products have to been purchased with SA and do you have to have a Essential or Premier support contract?  
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there are no other stipulations to this pricing category.  You don't have to have SA or Essential or Premier.
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Microsoft will be delivering a Support Webcast focused on the ramifications of the DST change on Exchange and Outlook.



Please note: Advance Registration is required.



When: Friday Feb 2nd, 4pm Eastern



Event Overview:

This Support WebCast will help you understand how Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Office Outlook are approaching this transition. It will provide details about:

Which versions of Exchange and Outlook are affected.
The requirements and considerations of for installing the fixes.
The most common scenarios that Exchange Administrators could face in preparing for the change.


Registration information:

Support WebCast: The impact of daylight saving time on Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Office Outlook





Also, please continue to check the Microsoft DST2007 website for up-to-date Microsoft product information relating to the DST2007 change: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/timezone/dst2007.mspx



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Can you please post a link to register for that WebCast.  I can't seem to find it anywhere.  Thank you.
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Elizabeth,
I am having trouble finding someone that knows about the new hotfix package and pricing for DST 2007.  Do you have a CSS number for North America? Do I need to refer to this by a specific name when asking? Thank you.
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Due to the Inability of Microsoft conduct business in a ethical manner, I have decided to write an application for 2000 server and 2000 Exchange.  Of course screwing profiteers out of their money.

Have a nice day!

I will be posting a link to my application in two weeks.
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What about the option of doing nothing?

I.E. Due to the time constraints in getting a large enterprise ready for DST in March, deciding to just manually roll the clocks ahead by an hour in March, then back by an hour before the Old DST time change in April, and then letting old DST roll ahead in April as usual.

Then prepare and patch properly for DST for the November fall back.

This assumes that we can maintain all systems in a "non-DST 2007 aware" state with no DST patches applied.

Steve
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hotfix packaging and pricingit isn't posted yet.  you should see something before the end of this week
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Steve -- this may not work because if a user creates an appointment in the future, past the real DST change date, that appointment will be an hour off after you set the clocks back to the right time.
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Has anyone tried testing the Outlook Update (rebasing) tool?  I tried and it seems to only work on recurring meetings.

Thanks!
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Correction...I ran the original test on a W2K client which only changed the recurring meetings.  My second test was on an XP SP2 client and it worked fine.  Has anyone heard about when the Exchange admin rebasing tool will be released?
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I just got off the phone with MS Canada.  They told me the price for the Exchange 2000 DST hotfix is $4500 Cdn.  With our upgrade plans to move to Exchange 2007 this summer, the pricing put it bluntly is way out to lunch.

I hope the free fix will be relase soon.
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