We wanted to update everyone on the progress and status of the DST 2007 efforts within Xeda:

MS Windows 2003 & MS Exchange 2003:

• All Microsoft Windows 2003 OS and Exchange 2003 patches were successfully applied last Tuesday & Friday in our Test & Production Forests, respectively.  These patches prepared the servers to recognize March 11th as the start of DST for 2007, instead of the old standard, the first Sunday in April.  This time period, along with the first week in November, 2007 is known as the "extended DST period".  These patches also were a prerequisite for updating individual calendars.
• Although the servers will now recognize the extended DST period, Outlook/Entourage/OWA calendars will incorrectly display meeting events during the extended DST period, until either a tool is ran locally for each email/calendar user or centrally against the Exchange servers.  For updating calendars on individual mailboxes, we decided to centrally run the a tool, the Exchange Calendar Update (ECU) tool, to adjust the calendar event times for the extended DST time periods.  This will ease the burden of the technical folks throughout the Xeda organization by not requiring the running individual calendar update tool.  Only the client OS will require patching  (Windows, MAC), but not Outlook, Entourage, or OWA.
   
• The Exchange Calendar Update tool was ran in the Test Forest with decent results.  The ECU tool basically goes through each calendar event, for each mailbox, updating items during the extended DST time period.  BUT, there have been reports from others technical folks running Exchange servers in their environment, that not all calendar items are updated appropriately.  The ECU tool does generate an error report, and a mechanism is in place to re-run the tool multiple-times.  Once a calendar item is updated, it is internally marked, so re-running the tool will not have an adverse affect on items already adjusted.  It is reported the tool can take hours or even days to complete in a complex Production environment, such as ours.  We will begin running the tool tomorrow morning at 7am.  This off-peak was the most suitable.  While the tool enumerates and updates calendars, folks can still access their mailboxes, send/receive email, and view calendars.  We strongly suggest they do not make modifications to their calendars during this weekend, for obvious reasons. 
• It is vital to communicate and disseminate this information within your department, as the mailbox/calendar owner will need to validate and verify their calendar items (after the tool is ran this weekend) for items during the extended DST time periods.  Also, any calendar items they had already entered manually for the extended DST time period, after the OS patch and prior to the ECU tool being ran, will require re-adjusting.  This items would be items entered this week only.

Mobile Devices

Blackberry:

• Everyone using a Blackberry incorporated into the campus Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) will need to update their devices manually.
• A step-by-step document outlining the procedures for updating the blackberry handheld has been posted on our http://windows.ucdavis.edu/doc website (requires UCD login and Kerberos ID).  Please let adhelp@ucdavis.edu know if you can not access this site.  The update is very straight-forward, requiring each user to browse to a specified URL and downloading the patch directly.  The document (PDF, Word) can be downloaded and forwarded to your Blackberry users.

Windows Mobile:

• Windows mobile devices will require a patch.
• This can be done by using the Microsoft Internet Explorer Mobile browser on your device, go to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/default.mspx and download the Daylight Saving Time 2007 Update for Windows Mobile. This file will install the update directly on the device. On your device, navigate to the file you downloaded, and then click on it to install the update.  For more information on Windows Mobile devices and DST, please see http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/daylightsaving/default.mspx#followsteps

If you have any questions, please respond to adhelp@ucdavis.edu.  Thank you for your patience and understanding as we get our systems updated and patched.

Regards,

Paul Singh
IET - Data Center & Client Services
University of California, Davis
pasingh@ucdavis.edu
(530) 752-8809