Changing the operating system time zone<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Changing the time zone at the system level will greatly depend on OS in use. In this guide, you can find instructions for configuring the time zones on the main Linux systems CentOS, Debian, and Ubuntu, as well as Windows Server 2012 or newer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Linux<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For the majority of the latest Linux distributions, the system time zone can be configured using the timedatectl<\/tt> tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check your current time zone using the following command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

timedatectl<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
      Local time: Wed 2017-05-24 08:57:48 UTC\n  Universal time: Wed 2017-05-24 08:57:48 UTC\n        RTC time: Wed 2017-05-24 08:57:48\n       Time zone: Etc\/UTC (UTC, +0000)\n     NTP enabled: no\nNTP synchronized: no\n RTC in local TZ: no\n      DST active: n\/a<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
In the output, you should see the current local and universal times along with the selected time zone. By default, the local time is usually set to UTC +0000 as above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you wish to change the local time zone, get a list of the available time zone names with the next command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
timedatectl list-timezones<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The city time zones are arranged alphabetically according to their respective continents. You might need to scroll down the list to find a city in your time zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you know the name of your time zone, configure it using the command underneath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
sudo timedatectl set-timezone Europe\/London<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The example above command sets the local time zone to BST +0100 which also enables automatic daylight saving time changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Windows<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
On Windows servers, the Date and Time<\/em> settings can be found either through the Windows Control Panel<\/em> or by entering the following in the command prompt, run, or search window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
timedate.cpl<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
This opens the Date and Time<\/em> settings which show the current time and selected time zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Click the Change time zone<\/em> button and open the Time Zone Settings<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Select the desired time zone from the drop-down menu. With locations that observe daylight saving time, you can also select if you wish the system time to change automatically at the given dates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you are done, confirm the selection and close the windows by clicking the OK<\/em> button.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Synchronising time with NTP<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Your Cloud Servers can periodically synchronise the time with an authoritative time server using the Network Time Protocol (NTP). The NTP synchronisation calculates the drift of your system clock and continuously adjusts it, which prevents large corrections that could lead to inconsistent logs for instance. The cost of this is a little processing power and memory, but for a modern server, it is negligible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Linux<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
On most modern distributions, including the latest Ubuntu, Debian, and CentOS, you will find timedatectl<\/tt> installed by default. Besides being used for setting the time zone,  timedatectl<\/tt> can also configure time synchronisation using NTP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recent Ubuntu<\/strong> releases, timedatectl<\/tt> replaced ntpdate<\/tt>. By default, timedatectl<\/tt> syncs the time once on boot and later on it uses socket activation to recheck when network connections become active.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
# Ubuntu\ntimedatectl<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
 Network time on: yes\nNTP synchronized: yes<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
If that is not the case, you can enable the network time with the following command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
sudo timedatectl set-ntp true<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Likewise, Debian<\/strong> has timedatectl<\/tt> installed, but it is not configured to synchronise the time by default. Enabled it with the command below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
# Debian\nsudo timedatectl set-ntp true<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
If you then check the time settings again, you should see that NTP is enabled. After which, the time will get synchronised automatically in a few moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
timedatectl<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
     NTP enabled: yes\nNTP synchronized: yes<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
On CentOS<\/strong> servers, you will need to install NTP to enable synchronisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
# CentOS\nsudo yum install ntp<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Next, enable ntpd<\/tt> in the system settings and restart it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
sudo systemctl enable ntpd\nsudo systemctl restart ntp<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
You can now turn on NTP synchronisation with the following command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
sudo timedatectl set-ntp true<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Then wait a moment for the system to synchronise the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
timedatectl<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
     NTP enabled: yes\nNTP synchronized: yes<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Not to worry if the NTP enabled<\/em> still shows n\/a<\/tt>, it should also get updated shortly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Windows<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Windows servers should have time synchronisation enabled by default. But if you wish to check or change the settings, they can be found under the Internet Time<\/em> tab in the Date and Time<\/em> settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Open the settings either through the Windows Control Panel or by entering the following <\/em>in the command prompt, run, or search window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
timedate.cpl<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Then click the Internet Time tab in the Date and Time<\/em> settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Click the\u00a0Change Settings<\/em>\u00a0button to open the Internet Time Settings<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Select the time server you wish from the drop-down menu or type in a new address. You can test the server connection and manually synchronise the time by clicking the Update now button. After a moment, you should see a text confirming that the clock was successfully synchronised with the selected server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you are done, confirm the selection and close the windows by clicking the OK<\/em> button.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":27242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","community-category":[108,109],"class_list":["post-24381","tutorial","type-tutorial","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","community-category-quick-start","community-category-upcloud-services"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studiogo.tech\/upcloudold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tutorial\/24381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studiogo.tech\/upcloudold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tutorial"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studiogo.tech\/upcloudold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tutorial"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studiogo.tech\/upcloudold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studiogo.tech\/upcloudold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studiogo.tech\/upcloudold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"community-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studiogo.tech\/upcloudold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/community-category?post=24381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}