Impact on TM1 from changing Astronomical time (UT1) to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)

[BariAbdul]

Hi Gurus,coming Leap Second change introduced by International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) on 31st December.Our organization going to do Leap second addition on 31st December 2016.I would appreciate,if gurus could help in figuring out what impact this Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) would have on existing chores and along the same line whole TM1 model.What are things we should be careful of,Please? Appreciate your help and happy holidays everyone! Thanks.

[Alan Kirk]

Hi Gurus,coming Leap Second change introduced by International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) on 31st December.Our organization going to do Leap second addition on 31st December 2016.I would appreciate,if gurus could help in figuring out what impact this Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) would have on existing chores and along the same line whole TM1 model.What are things we should be careful of,Please? Appreciate your help and happy holidays everyone! Thanks.

Not a bad question, actually. On balance, I would say "not a whole heck of a lot".

The impact on TM1 itself would not even be noticeable because TM1's time accuracy is kinda-sorta a second anyway. You probably wouldn't rely on it very much for anything that is "down to the second" data, not read from the system anyway.

That leaves the O/S that it's running on.

This article gives a pretty decent overview of how Windows Servers treat leap seconds. I quote the important section below:

It may be worth noting a couple of things from a developer’s perspective:
- Most applications do not handle leap seconds, as their time structures only allow seconds numbered to 59 – not to 60.
- Most applications do not care about this, as they will never receive a leap second from the system clock – even when one occurs.

Of course at some point the Windows Time Service will sync and maybe an adjustment of a second will occur; the important thing though is that most computers are not precision timepieces anyway so we already have a situation where time syncs cause a fractional shift in a server's clock from time to time. If you have a chore which is scheduled to run right on a second that is skipped then maaaaaybe, posssibly, the trigger for that chore will be missed... but even then it depends on how the TM1 server tracks that scheduling internally anyway and that, I must admit, I'm not sure of. (Conversely if your clock was somehow running fast a time sync may cause a chore to trigger twice, but I suspect that it would be pretty rare in real life. )

Put simply, I really don't think there's any more risk from the leap second than there is from a normal time sync adjustment.

[BariAbdul]

Thanks a lot Alan for your help.Happy holidays!