DST test

wehamilton · Post by **wehamilton** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 10:45 am

Is there a test that will verify or display the Daylight Savings Time dates for each of my windows 2000 and 2003 servers?

A test that checks both the start date and end date would help identify servers that need to be patched and provide verification to other support staff which servers have been done.

Thanks

KS-Soft · Post by **KS-Soft** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 12:05 pm

Looks like Microsoft provides special utility for this purpose
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914387#

Regards
Alex

wehamilton · Post by **wehamilton** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 1:22 pm

Yes, Microsoft has a utility that can look for a DST event that they create on windows 2000 systems when patched. 2003 servers and servers updated directly or with their tzedit tool do not have this eventlog entry.

I was thinking of a test that checks the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation settings and looks at the DaylightStart and StandardStart keys then compares the values to my desired values.

KS-Soft · Post by **KS-Soft** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 6:23 pm

I thought Microsoft utility can be used for Shell Script test method, but I was wrong. This is GUI application.
Sorry, I cannot assign high priority for this task. We have a lot of other tasks

Regards
Alex

Kapz · Post by **Kapz** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 6:15 am

wehamilton,

You might be able to accomplish this by using a little freeware utility called BackupKey.
BackupKey can automatically export a certain key from the registry to a plain text file. HM can read this file and search for a specific string and this way you can compare the registry's content with your desired values.

We use this concept to monitor settings that can only be found in the registry.

/Kasper

wehamilton · Post by **wehamilton** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:45 am

Kapz wrote:wehamilton,

You might be able to accomplish this by using a little freeware utility called BackupKey.
BackupKey can automatically export a certain key from the registry to a plain text file. HM can read this file and search for a specific string and this way you can compare the registry's content with your desired values.

We use this concept to monitor settings that can only be found in the registry.

/Kasper

Sounds good, can you provide a link for this utility?

Kapz · Post by **Kapz** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 12:52 pm

> can you provide a link for this utility?
Yep - http://download.anet.dk/backupkey.exe (460 KB)

Usage:

* Item -> Add
* Enter regsitry key(s) to export
* Enter file name to export content to
* Save

For automatic export of your specified keys simply call BackupKey with option -AUTOBACKUP

H2H

/Kasper

KS-Soft · Post by **KS-Soft** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 2:55 pm

If you have time to write a script, then you may use Shell Script or Active Script test method to read and compare registry data.
Really simple script that reads registry located in <HostMonitor>\Examples\Scripts folder

Regards
Alex

Kapz · Post by **Kapz** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 3:45 pm

> Really simple script that reads registry located in <HostMonitor>\Examples\Scripts folder

Hey, nice - will give it a shot on Monday.
So more or less HM *is* in fact able to read a value in a registry - all you need to do now is to wrap the script into a new standard Test Method called Read Registry

Thanks for the tip !

/Kasper