ITEM: M2862L

AIX DCE client config to OS/2 DCE Server gets "clock skew too great"

Question:

The customer is trying to configure an AIX 3.2.5 system with DCE 1.2 as
a DCE client to an OS/2 DCE cell (DCE Security and CDS Server). The AIX
DCE client fails with the following message:

"configuration password validation failure. Clock skew too great"


Response:

When using the operating system commands to check the time, they appeared
to be close enough for DCE, but because the timezone variables were
set to different values, the Universal Coordinated Time (UTC), 
was off by 1 hour. 

The OS/2 system running the DCE security and directory service had its timezone
(TZ in CONFIG.SYS) set to EST5, and the AIX 3.2 system had its timezone set
to EST5EDT. When DCE checks time, is looks at the UTC. The UTC
time did not match the +-5 minute criteria for DCE due to the different
timezones.

The problem was corrected by setting the timezone (TZ) on the OS/2 system
to EST5EDT in CONFIG.SYS, rebooting the OS/2 system and reseting the time
to the correct time for the new timezone. 

NOTE: Be careful when changing the time on a DCE directory server.
Time cannot be changed backward because CDS keeps timestamps on objects.




Support Line: AIX DCE client config to OS/2 DCE Server gets "clock skew too great"  ITEM: M2862L

Dated: September 1994 Category: N/A

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