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How to set the timezone on the DroboFS

By
hoops
– December 15, 2011Posted in: Blog, How To

I found that by default and straight out of the box, the timezone on the DroboFS was set to Pacific Standard Time (PST) which was 8 hours prior to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which was far from the truth. After some searching via the web I managed to find a couple of useful sources, however here I have simply used the most important pieces.

Firstly there exists a Linux environment variable called the TZ variable which controls the format which the underlying time protocol uses for the timezone. The TZ variable is specified by the operating system using system wide or user specific shell profile file.

To set the timezone, first you will need to SSH into the DroboFS, next just have a look to see what your date and timezone are currently set to:

# date
Wed Dec 14 05:12:39 PST 2011
# echo $TZ
PST8PDT

Also have a look inside the local .profile file and see what timezone is set (note: this should match the above).

# nano /etc/profile
TZ=PST8PDT

I ended up setting my global TZ variable to my local timezone of Adelaide in Australia by using the full specification format as per the following:

# export TZ=ACST-9:30ACDT-10:30,M10.5.0/02:00:00,M4.1.0/03:00:00

I also changed the TZ variable inside the user profile file to the same as above. You don’t have to use the above format, I have listed a few examples below but also I found this timezone converter website useful along with this wiki website.

Some examples are given below.

TZ=EST5EDT

This is the default when the TZ variable isn’t set.

  • Eastern Standard Time is 5 hours earlier than Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Standard time and daylight saving time both apply to this locale.
  • By default, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) is one hour ahead of standard time (that is, EDT4).
  • Since it isn’t specified, daylight saving time starts on the first Sunday of April at 2:00 A.M., and ends on the last Sunday of October at 2:00 A.M.
TZ=EST5EDT4,M4.1.0/02:00:00,M10.5.0/02:00:00

This is the full specification for the default when the TZ variable isn’t set.

  • Eastern Standard Time is 5 hours earlier than Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
  • Standard time and daylight saving time both apply to this locale.
  • Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) is one hour ahead of standard time.
  • Daylight saving time starts on the first (1) Sunday (0) of April (4) at 2:00 A.M., and ends on the last (5) Sunday (0) of October (10) at 2:00 A.M.
TZ=PST8PDT

Pacific Standard Time is 8 hours earlier than Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

  • Standard time and daylight saving time both apply to this locale.
  • By default, Pacific Daylight Time is one hour ahead of standard time (that is, PDT7).
  • Since it isn’t specified, daylight saving time starts on the first Sunday of April at 2:00 A.M., and ends on the last Sunday of October at 2:00 A.M.
TZ=NST3:30NDT1:30

Newfoundland Standard Time is 3 and 1/2 hours earlier than Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

  • Standard time and daylight saving time both apply to this locale.
  • Newfoundland Daylight Time is 1 and 1/2 hours earlier than Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
TZ=Central Europe Time-2:00
  • Central European Time is 2 hours later than Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
  • Daylight saving time doesn’t apply in this locale.
TZ=JST-9
  • Japanese Standard Time is 9 hours earlier than Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
  • Daylight saving time doesn’t apply in this locale.
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