Assessing the Year 2036/2038 Time-Limit Risk for Aria Suite Products

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

To know the potential impact of the 32-bit signed/unsigned integer time limitation, commonly known as the Year 2036/2038 problem, on Aria Suite products.

Environment

VMware Aria suite

VMware Identity Manager 

Cause

The Year 2038 problem affects systems that use a 32-bit signed integer to represent time values (time_t). In such systems, time values will overflow on 19 January 2038. Similarly, certain 32-bit unsigned time implementations may encounter issues in February 2106 or earlier in 2036, depending on implementation.

Resolution

All VMware Aria Suite products run on a 64-bit kernel, which utilizes 64-bit timestamps (time_t). Therefore, these products are not impacted by the Year 2036/2038 problem.

You can verify the kernel type by running the following command on each appliance:

uname -m

 

x86_64 → Indicates a 64-bit kernel, where time_t is 64-bit in kernel space and therefore not impacted.

i686 or similar → Indicates a 32-bit kernel, which may be subject to the 32-bit time_t limitation and thus potentially affected.

 

Additional Information

For background on the Year 2038 problem, refer to:
Year 2038 Problem - Wikipedia