In August of 2005 the United States Congress passed the Energy Policy Act (EPA), which changes the date of both the start and end of daylight savings time (DST). When this law goes into effect in 2007, DST will start three weeks earlier (2:00 am on the second Sunday in March) and will end one week later (2:00 am on the first Sunday in November) than what had traditionally occurred. This DST change is being adopted in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Western Australia and many other countries who observe DST. This is the first change to DST in 20 years and some systems will require coding updates and patches.
Before applying any DST updates, customers who want be DST ready will need to be on one of the following Cognos product versions:
- Cognos ReportNet 1.1 MR4
- Cognos 8 Business Intelligence Server 8.1 MR2
- Cognos 8 Business Intelligence Server 8.2 RTM
Customers wishing to leverage the DST changes will be required to install the DST Hotsite and/or a Non-Cumulative Updater Kit, and update their JRE.
SUN JRE Recommended Versions
| SUN JRE Version | Minimum Required Version |
|---|---|
| 1.3 | 1.3.1_20 |
| 1.4 | 1.4.2_13 |
Cognos ReportNet 1.1 customers will be required to upgrade to Cognos ReportNet 1.1 MR4 and then install the Cognos ReportNet 1.1 MR4 DST Hotsite update on top of MR4. Cognos 8 MR2 and Cognos 8.2 Business Intelligence customers will be required to apply only the DST non-cumulative updater kit.
Updated (Sep 25/07)! Cognos 8.1 RTM and MR1 customers will be required to upgrade to Cognos 8.1 MR2 and then install the Cognos 8.1 MR2 non-cumulative updater kit on top of Cognos 8.1 MR2. Cognos 8.1 MR2 and Cognos 8.2 Business Intelligence customers will be required to apply only the DST non-cumulative updater kit.
Both the MR4 hotsite and Cognos 8 non-cumulative updaters contain only DST related fixes. Refer to the Cognos Product Table- DST Advisory for the list of compatible versions and fix format.
Cognos Product Table- DST Advisory
| Cognos Release Version | DST Hotsite | DST Non-Cumulative Updater Kit |
|---|---|---|
| Cognos ReportNet 1.1 MR4 | X | |
| Cognos 8 Business Intelligence MR2 | | X |
| Cognos 8 Business Intelligence RTM | | X |
Note:
Customers who have applied Hotsite kits at or greater than the following do not need to apply the kits associated with the DST advisory:
- Cognos ReportNet 1.1 MR4: 1.1.601.101
- Cognos 8.1 MR2: 8.1.209.129
- Updated (Sep 25/07)! Cognos 8.2: 8.2.43.252
Suggested Action(s):
Cognos recommends customers install the DST Hotsite (Cognos ReportNet 1.1 MR4) or DST Non-Cumulative Updater Kit (Cognos 8). See Available Downloads at the end of this advisory after the FAQ.
Customers should also review the outstanding JDBC driver issue and the DST fixes detailed below.
Outstanding Issue:
Display Dates in Cognos Connection
Cognos has issued a series of hotsite fixes and non-cumulative updater kits to make the required changes necessary for the new DST rules but there may be some issues encountered prior to the transition period to DST in March 2008. During the period equal to the offset from GMT (5 hours for customers in EST for example) preceding 2 AM EST up until the transition to DST, timestamps used to display the created or modified times of an object in Cognos Connection may be incorrect. Environments using Microsoft SQL Server or Apache Derby will be the only environments affected by this behavior.
This issue is due to a third party issue with the JDBC driver that is used in Cognos ReportNet and Cognos 8. At the time of publishing ADVC808_0207, Cognos is awaiting a fix from the third party vendor of the JDBC driver.
Details of the defect include:
- Vendor: JNetDirect
- Driver Name: JSQLConnect
- Bug Number: TSR 502
- Third Party Defect: 568271
NOTE: This does not affect time zones with positive offsets from GMT, GMT +2 for example.
Symptoms of this issue may include:
A report is modified at 10 PM EST on March 8th, 2008. The modified timestamp that will appear in Cognos Connection will show 11 PM March 8th, 2008. Any reports modified prior to 9 PM EST March 8th, 2008 will show the correct modified timestamp.
Suggested Workaround:
Cognos recommends customers be aware of this issue (timestamps of objects are off +/- 1 hour during the DST transition period). Customers need to consider the impact to the work planned for this period, and potentially adjust their report schedules to compensate or avoid scheduling reports during the transition period.
Suggested Action(s):
Cognos does not recommend customers take the fix directly from the vendor. Cognos expects that after the vendor supplies us with the fix, additional code changes and testing will be required prior to release.
