I thought you would like to know of the y2k problems we have found with a client/server system. The application,Talisman, is a UK package used to pay IT contractors, it has payroll, accounting and bank transfer functions. The system has extensive functionality, much of it based on dates,there are, however, other problems: It runs under HP Unix Operating system, the version we have is non-compliant. It uses unique database management software (DBMS), this is non-compliant. The application as mentioned is very date dependent, we need new versions of all the modules used. A file conversion exercise will be required to extend record lengths to accommodate the century in date fields. Fortunately the Sun Sparc Server (Super central PC) is compliant, as are the clients (user PCs), but they all had to be tested. Our network uses various comms equipment much of which does not contain any date feature but some control software does, eg CICS routers need a compliant version of the IOS 11.x, which was installed. In short we have to, contact hardware comms suppliers to check if their product contained date features, rollover test the server/pcs, upgrade the Operating System, DBMS and application software, also perform a file conversion (on the many files used), regression and y2k test then install the compliant products into production. Oh yes we need a parallel test environment (ie spare server and clients) to perform the tests. Finally the compliant version of the application is still not ready, it is 6 months late from when originally promised, forward dates are failing now.

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), July 29, 1998

Answers

Typo, I meant CISCO routers.

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), July 29, 1998.