For 2007, the rules surrounding Daylight Savings Time (DST) in North America have changed.   This comes as a result of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. In order to determine the level to which this effects your MMS installation, several things must be considered. If you are currently hosting MMS data on your own server at one of your sites, MMS will be connecting to your site, and patching the operating system for Red Hat 7, 7.2, and Red Hat Enterprise 4 systems. MMS can also update the MMS software to version 7.18C; to schedule your upgrade please call our support department at 902-496-6000.

 

For clients whom MMS provides hosting services, MMS will update all servers in our facilities, as well as provide an update to MMS version 7.18C.

 

SCO (The SCO Group) is not offering a patch for their operating system (5.0.6) as originally sold by MMS for single server (client housed) installations. MMS will provide instructions for changing the time manually to clients using SCO, however this change is performed at the client’s own risk.  Alternately, MMS can manually adjust the time on SCO sites however it will be a billable change.

 

This update will be provided as part of the MMS software maintenance program. MMS will use this opportunity to update the MMS system software for clients with software maintenance.

 

Many clients are curious as to how this will impact the Windows workstations.

For clients using Win-Term and POS NRG, the local (POS) workstation time does not impact the time that transactions are recorded on the server.  Clients using POS NRG versions older than 1.64 will be prompted to update to a newer version once the upgrade is completed. It is important to note that versions prior to 1.64 will not be able to log in to a server running 7.18C until updated.

 

For clients running Win-POS and Blue Sync Products, the local machine does impact the time at which the transaction is recorded. Windows XP Pro stations with auto-update enabled and internet access (Start > Control Panel > Auto Updates) should have received a correction automatically.  Stations running Windows XP Pro without auto-update can be updated through Microsoft’s update system at this link:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931836

 

 

Energy Policy Act of 2005 contains details on the changes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Policy_Act_of_2005

 

Information on The SCO Group and version support: http://thescogroup.com/products/dst/

 

MMS clients who have a Silver Service level and require MMS software updates are eligible to receive the software package but are responsible for charges associated with technical installation. 

 

For additional questions, please contact our Help Desk at 902-496-6000