Novell GroupWise 7 SP3 GWCheck tzchangefolder information

  • Document ID:3215561
  • Creation Date:14-Mar-2008
  • Modified Date:27-Apr-2012
    • Micro Focus Products:
      GroupWise

Environment

Novell GroupWise 7 SP3

Situation

A new Support Option has been added to GWCheck to allow administrators to help end users locate previously sent appointments that may have been impacted by a Time Zone change or a Daylight Saving Time change.

Novell GroupWise 7 SP3 GWCheck will create a search folder based on the criteria you supply in the Misc option tab. For example, the search folder can display all appointments that fall into the extra weeks of DST. Users are then able to use the folder to selectively resend their appointments, as needed.

GWCheck should be run for each changed time period - for example, if both the start and end of DST have changed, GWCheck should be run twice.

Resolution

GWCheck with the tzchangefolder option will create a query folder that will allow end-users to double-check their appointments.
Run GWCheck with the default options: Analyze/Fix databases with Structure & Fix Problems checked. Against, both the User & Message databases. You can run against the entire Post Office or an individual user.
Under the GWCheck Misc tab | Support Options:
A:) The syntax (using Adelaide, Australia as an example) is:

tzchangefolder="2008-03-30:2008-04-06:09.30:Please check the appointments in this folder"

Where:
The quotes are required.
2008-03-30 is the last Sunday in March which is used as the"From" date on the query folder.

2008-04-06 is the first Sunday in April which is used as the"Until" date on the query folder.

09.30 is 9 hours and 30 minutes and is the GMT offset that applies to the two dates you entered.
If Daylight Savings Time is increasing, then the offset between the dates should be the GMT offset during Daylight Savings Time.
"Please check the appointments in this folder" is the name to use when creating the folder. You can use a different folder name of your choosing.

All leading zeros shown are required.

The minutes in the GMT offset are optional.

Western hemispheres are negative, for example Mountain Standard Time is -07 as in:
tzchangefolder="2008-03-30:2008-04-06:-07:Please check the appointments in this folder"

B) A single folder is created, so you will run this each time a time zone change approaches. In other words, Sydney post offices will have this run once in April 2008 and again in October 2008. Each time it is run, the existing folder is replaced with the new folder.

C) The folder will be placed as the first folder under the cabinet.

D) As with other special GWCheck options, the option can be run from either a standalone GWCheck or kicked off from Console1.

E) It is run on a per post office basis and the option can include or exclude specific users.

F) The folder is user deleteable and you should inform users to feel free to delete it once they have checked the appointments in it.

G) Users should be warned to not adjust any appointments until they have applied the Microsoft (or appropriate OS) patch that actually changes their workstation time zone.

H) Administrators should make sure that all server machines are running with the correct OS patches and the correct TZ / DST settings.

Additional Information

Common Questions:
Q: Will this work against a GroupWise 6.5 post office ?
A: This is not an 'officially' supported procedure. Although, we don't see a reason why it shouldn't work. However, since GroupWise 6.5 is no longer developed this has not been tested by Novell.
Q: Do I use the standard time GMT offset or the daylight savings time GMT offset?
A: You use the GMT offset that applies to the date range that you provided.

If the DST period is getting longer, the From & Until dates will include day that used to be standard time and are now daylight savings time. In this case, you want to use the daylight savings time GMT offset so that the query shows the correct midnight to midnight range.

If the DST period is getting shorter, the From & Until dates should include days that used to be daylight savings time but are now standard time. So you want the standard GMT offset.
In simple terms, use the GMT offset that will apply to the date range you entered.

Q: What if I'm running this tool on a post office that isn't in the timezone that is changing?

A: The tool will work properly no mater what machine it is run from. It is not required that all of the users on the post office be in the same timezone.
Q: What if there is a timechange in my timezone between the From& Until dates I entered - then which GMT offset do I use?
A: If you are specifying From and Until dates such that a timechange occurs between those dates, you are misusing the tool. In all cases, either the From or the Until date (or both) should include a day on which a timechange occurs. Also, there should not be any days in between the From and Until dates on which a timechange occurs.