DATABASE MANAGEMENT

Preventing incorrect system time changes
Use IBM® Lotus ® Domino's™ NOTES.INI settings to prevent the system clock on the Domino server from being reset to an incorrect time. The system clock time can be changed to an incorrect time, often to a future time, due to system or human error. These incorrect changes to a future time are called forward time changes. When a forward time change occurs on the system clock, all date and time stamps for all documents and databases also change.

There are two time settings impacted by forward time changes to the system clock settings. They are


Forward time changes to the system clock can occur while the Domino server is running or while the server is shut down.

Use the following NOTES.INI settings to help prevent forward time changes.


Note You can remove the value in the setting Last_Domino_Time, to force the Domino server to restart without failure after an extended amount of time regardless of the value in the Restart_Time_Action setting.

While the Domino server is shut down, Domino uses the NOTES.INI setting Last_Domino_Time to control forward time changes to the system clock. The previous internal Domino time is saved in Last_Domino_Time when the Domino server shuts down, when the server is successfully restarted and when the OS time refreshes the internal Domino time.

You can use the NOTES.INI setting Restart_Time_Interval to specify a restart time interval for the Domino server. When the Domino server restarts, if the difference between the OS time and the time stored in Last_Domino_Time exceeds the value in the NOTES.INI setting Restart_Time_Interval, one of the following occurs according to the settings in the NOTES.INI file:


While the Domino server is running, the internal Domino time is reset from the OS time at regular intervals. The server process issues a call to reset the internal Domino time every five minutes but other processes may also issue calls to reset the internal Domino time as well. Use the NOTES.INI setting, Reset_Time_Interval, to designate a maximum time interval other than the default of five minutes. Specify the time interval in seconds. The Reset_Time_Interval setting is checked when Domino attempts to reset the internal Domino time to the OS time. If the internal Domino time exceeds the Reset_Time_Interval, the OS time is not reset. For example, if the Reset_Time_Interval=600 (10 minutes), and the internal Domino time is 1:34 P.M., and the OS time is 1:12 P.M., issuing a Set SystemTime command would not readjust the internal Domino time. If the internal Domino time is earlier than the OS time, the Domino time is changed to the OS time. The Domino time is not set back if the OS time is earlier than the Domino time. The Reset_Time_Interval setting is ignored by the Set SystemTime server command.

Forcing internal domino time to reset to OS time

If the OS time exceeds the internal Domino time, you can use the server console command Set SystemTime to force the internal Domino time to be reset to the OS time regardless of the value of the NOTES.INI setting Reset_Time_Interval.

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