Time Zone Settings

Enable Time Zones

System Administration > System > System Settings > Time Zones

When enabled, offsets are applied to date values as they are processed by the ASM server.

Dates are offset to the Server Time when they are received

Dates are offset to the User Time when they are displayed

Dates are offset to the Application Server time when they are processed (e.g. when sending email)

Server Time Zone

System Administration > System > Server Time Zone

When Time Zones are enabled, the Time Zone value for the Server defaults to Undefined. This is equivalent to UTC time. This setting must be set to the same as the Time Zone of the operating system of the Database Server

The Time Zone of the Database Server does ~~not~~ have to be the same as the Time Zone of the operating system of the Application Server

User Time Zone

Person Details > Time Zone

When Time Zones are enabled, the Time Zone value for Users defaults to Undefined. This is equivalent to UTC time.

Therefore, by default, Dates that are displayed to Users will be offset to UTC time when Time Zones are enabled - the dates are offset only when the user timezone differs from the system timezone

The Time Zone value for each person should be set to the Time Zone they typically work from.

Dates that are entered by users are adjusted to the Server Time Zone before being saved to the database

Application Server Time Zone

This is configured via the Windows Time Settings.

When Time Zones are enabled in ASM, times processed by the services will be offset according to the time difference between the Application Server and Database

Daylight Savings Time

Daylight Savings Time (DST) is applied during Date offset calculations when DST is in effect

Known Issues

Incorrect Offsets for some dates during Daylight Savings Time

DST Offsets are always applied to all dates while DST is in effect.

This applies even when DST does not apply to the selected date.

e.g. Dates in February will be displayed with a 1 hour offset when displayed in July

Users must account for DST when selecting dates

DST is always applied to Dates displayed in ASM while DST is in effect.

Therefore, when picking dates that are affected by DST when the current date is not in DST, users must account for the offset to ensure values are set as expected.

e.g. When scheduling a Change in February that should take place at 9am in July, the user must pick 8am to account for the DST offset (+1) at the intended date

Conversely, users must also account for DST when selecting dates during DST.

e.g. selecting 9am on the 1st of November, when it is currently July, requires the user to select 8am to account for the current offset.

Incorrect Offsets applied when Database Time Zone is changed

If the Database is moved to a server with a different Time Zone, the Server Time Zone setting in ASM must be updated to reflect the change.

This means that dates created after the change will be processed correctly.

This also means that dates created before the change will not have the correct offset applied.

Server Time Zone Offsets are calculated, in minutes, when the service starts.

Therefore, all Services must be restarted when entering or leaving DST

User Time Zone Offsets are calculated, in minutes, when the user logs in

Therefore, all Users must log in again after entering or leaving DST