'Leap second' snafu affects Oracle clustering tool

Cluster Ready Services software is rebooting in some cases because of second added to 2008. The second that time-tracking scientists added to 2008 to adjust for the slowing of the earth's rotation is causing problems with Oracle Corp.'s Cluster Ready Services (CRS) software, the vendor said in a support document issued Monday. But it added that a pair of fixes are available.

CRS is used in conjunction with Oracle's Real Application Clusters software, which enables a single Oracle database to be deployed on a group of servers, or "nodes," in order to provide fault tolerance and increased scalability.

The "leap second event" is causing CRS nodes to reboot, according to the Oracle document that details the problem. The affected database platforms are Versions 10.1.0.2 to 11.1.0.7 of the Oracle Server Enterprise Edition, running on 64-bit Sun Solaris servers with CRS and Oracle patch sets 10.2.0.1 to 11.1.0.7.

Coordinated Universal Time, the world's time standard, needs to be adjusted in order to account for the differences that develop between UTC and the international atomic clock because of Earth's rotational speed. The addition of leap seconds are handled by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, either at the end of June or December. The IERS, as the organization is known, added a second to Dec. 31.

As a result, Network Time Protocol daemons "had to adjust time accordingly, and the CRS product stack has encountered problems resulting in node reboots," Oracle said in its support document. NTP is used to synchronize the clocks of computers and relies on UTC to provide reference times.

The reboots will occur on affected nodes only under two specific conditions, which were detailed by Oracle. The document also spells out two methods for fixing the issue, including the installation of available patches.

A spokesman for Oracle didn't immediately respond to a request for further comment.

The rebooting issue has prompted some discussions on multiple user forums and mailing lists in recent days.

"This begs the question -- how the heck do timekeepers and politicians get away with last-minute time changes?" one user wrote. "Surely there's some pushback from technology-related interest groups to try and get more than four weeks' warning?"

Other posters, however, pointed out that the IERS made its announcement regarding the plan to add the most recent leap second last July.

Oracle's disclosure follows the problem that cropped up last week with some of Microsoft Corp.'s Zune media players. The affected devices froze up and wouldn't work on Wednesday, a snafu that Microsoft attributed to a bug in their internal clock drivers. The bug became an issue because 2008 was a leap year, Microsoft said.

Author: Chris Kanaracus @ www.computerworld.com

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Oracle India staff now get hour-based pay?

The world's second-largest software products company Oracle is understood to have begun linking the payment of its 20,000-odd employees in India with the productive hours they spend in the company. This has resulted in salary cuts, ranging between 10 and 50 per cent across the board.

Company sources explain that if an employee is a billable resource for 15 days a month, he will be paid in full for that period while for the rest of the period, he is paid a "nominal" amount. Replying to an email query, a company spokesperson in India said: "Oracle does not comment on speculation or rumours."

The company is also understood to have asked all non-billable employees (those on the bench) to get themselves engaged in internal projects, failing which they can explore opportunities outside the company. It is not, however, clear whether the company is asking the non-billable resources to work for outside companies as contract employees while still on Oracle's rolls, or to use their non-productive hours to make money for themselves.

Initially implemented for the employees of Oracle Financial Services Software (formerly i-Flex Solutions), Oracle India has reportedly implemented this across all its centres in India.

Oracle India, however, has not communicated this decision to employees in writing. The team leaders and project managers in different centres have been informed about the decision orally.

"They are telling us that while many companies are laying off employees, Oracle does not want to take such extreme steps. They are saying that once things start improving, we will be back to all the usual compensation and allowances," said a senior employee of Oracle India on condition of anonymity.

Second quarter results announced last month show that Oracle had been able to maintain its profitability despite nearly flat revenue growth. Oracle's net income fell half a per cent to $1.27 billion in the second quarter and sales were up 5.5 per cent to $5.6 billion, lower than analyst estimates. Revenues from new software licences, which is an indicator of future sales, were down 3 per cent to $1.6 billion.

Following its acquisition of i-Flex, sources also note that there were plans to lay off all employees of that company, a decision that was scrapped following intervention of Oracle's management. Oracle feared that the lay-off of all i-Flex employees might suggest the failure of the M&A -- an area that has been mastered by the California-headquartered company over the years.

Sources added that Oracle India has cancelled employee travel costs and withdrawn free snacks and food. Despite news that the company has not stopped recruitments in India, freshers who were given offer letters for annual packages of Rs 2.4 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh earlier are now being asked to consider packages of Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 1.8 lakh.

Author: Bibhu Ranjan Mishra @ www.rediff.com

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Oracle wins ruling on patents

Redwood City-based Oracle Corp. won a judge's ruling Friday that stated it doesn't infringe on two patents held by Parallel Networks LLC, averting a jury trial that was set to start Jan. 12. Oracle in 2006 sued the patents' then-owner, EpicRealm Licensing LP of Richardson, Texas, in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware. Oracle contended it was about to be sued over the inventions for Web-page creation. The patents were assigned to Dallas-based Parallel Networks in 2007, according to court papers. Both companies agreed to dismiss Oracle's claims that the patents were invalid and unenforceable. Oracle had sales of $22.4 billion last year, behind only Microsoft Corp. among software makers.

Source: www.insidebayarea.com

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