How to Change Time Zones on Servers

Linux Server:

1. Login as a Root.

2. The time zones are located on server in the directory /usr/share/zoneinfo, so change the directory to that one.

#  cd /usr/share/zoneinfo

3. Copy or move the current local time zone so that you will be able to set the time zone as per requirement.

#  cp -p /etc/localtime  /etc/localtime-back

#  mv /etc/localtime  /etc/localtime-back

4. Now say for example, if you want to set the BST [British Summer Time] time zone for your server then, you will need to create a symbolic link for the same. The command is as follows.

#  ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/BST  /etc/localtime

Verify the changes done by "date" command.

#  date

Sun Sep 12 23:16:53  BST 2010