Archive for March, 2007

I have spent most if not all of last week frantically running around servers and devices trying to patch them up­. Some were pleasant, some were not.

My Cisco PIX 501 for instance, was easy to patch for DST.

azrael(config)# sh clock
12:30:25.078 EST Tue Mar 13 2007
azrael(config)# clock summer-time EST recurring 2 Sun Mar 2:00 1 Sun Nov 2:00
azrael(config)# sh clock
13:30:26.999 EST Tue Mar 13 2007
azrael(config)# wr m
Building configuration...
Cryptochecksum: 7898776d bee63c89 5f3ab01b 9064f51c
[OK]

I’ve had the pleasure of patching production servers running Oracle 9i and UC4 Global. Doing the Oracle jazz helped me fully grasp the deadly truth that is, I am not a DBA. With reason. I have spent a day just to determine the consequences of the DST changes. Turns out none of the systems used TZDATA columns, whatever that means. So I have pushed the patch into the next maintenance window.

Since everything java is affected, I had to run around upgrading every single jvm and jdk running on servers. The problem is now apparent with a Macromedia/Adobe Jrun instance we have. Log entries are off by one hour for two weeks, and I hope none of the transactional code is actually fucking up. I couldn’t patch the jdk on the production server because of a nasty bug with anything above 1.5.0_05, where the Java compiler outputs notices no matter what, and Jrun interprets these as errors, thus rendering your web application non functional in some cases.

I think it is time they get rid of Jrun. It has brought nothing but misery. So, all of this just so it can be dark outside when I get up to go to work, and “save costs” while spending thousands trying to get everything patched up? (A giant bitchslap to companies who provided their patches last tuesday before the change). Just so that we can all spend the two weeks adjusting to the change and living with jet lag-esque effects? Sometimes I wonder who the fuck decides these things…