How does the new Daylight Savings Time change effect my Oracle database systems? Not sure why I didn’t ask that question a little sooner, but fortunately I still time to research it and address it well before March 11. There’s an overwhelming amount of information on Metalink.
Start Here
402742.1- USA 2007 DST Changes: Frequently Asked Questions for Oracle RDBMS
Other Important Notes
359145.1 – Impact of 2007 USA daylight saving changes on the Oracle database
357056.1 – Impact of changes to daylight saving time (DST) rules on the Oracle database
396670.1- Usage of utltzuv2.sql before updating time zone files in Oracle 9
396671.1- Usage of utltzuv2.sql before updating time zone files in Oracle 10
396387.1- Workarounds when Database time zone patches are not available for your patchset
There are potentially three areas to be patched, the Oracle database, the Oracle JVM, and the Oracle Client.
Oracle Database
There is a required pre-install script called utltzuv2.sql that needs to be executed to determine what data is affected. The data needs to be saved off before the DST patch is applied. There is a utltzuv2.sql script for Oracle 9.2.0.x (Patch 5548107) and Oracle 10.2.0.2 (Patch 5601428). See Metalink Note 359145.1 for more information.
Regardless whether any data is affected, it’s probably a good idea to apply the patch. Recent threads on the Oracle-L seem to say you can apply the patch (using opatch) while the database is running and there is no need to restart the database. I have found this to be true (no database restart) on my Solaris and HP-UX servers, but that does not appear to be the case for my Windows servers.
For my 9.2.0.8 databases on Solaris and HP-UX PA-RISC, I am applying the version 4 timezone files patch (Patch 5632264).
Oracle JVM
Metalink Note 397770.1explains how to determine if the Oracle JVM is installed in your database. If the Oracle JVM is not installed or you have the most current patchsets (e.g. 9.2.0.8, 10.1.0.6, 10.2.0.3) installed, then no patching is necessary. This information is detailed in Metalink Note 359145.1.
If you have an 8.1.7.4 database with the Oracle JVM installed, then Patch 5075503 can be applied.
Oracle Client
Metalink Note 396426.1 explains the effects on the client software of the timezone patches.
References
OTN Techblog
Chris Foot Blog - 2007 Daylight Saving Time Changes
Chris Foot Blog – 2007 Daylight Saving Time Changes Update
Oracle-L Archive – Oracle and DST changes
Daylight Saving Time 2007 Forum on Metalink Now Open
OTN – Oracle Database Daylight Saving Time Update Guide
Chris Foot Blog – DST Deadline – One Week and Counting
Webcast
2007 Daylight Savings Time E-Business Customer Webcast
Posted by mrothouse 