Note: This article was originally published in 2013. Some steps, commands, or software versions may have changed. Check the current Ubuntu documentation for the latest information.

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn set the timezone on ubuntu server. Ubuntu is a popular Linux distribution based on Debian, widely used for servers and development environments.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • A system running Ubuntu (desktop or server edition)
  • Terminal access with sudo privileges
  • Basic familiarity with Linux command line

How to: Set the (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone “Time zone”) on (http://www.ubuntu.com “Ubuntu (operating system)”)

If you are using a VM hosted with a public cloud provider you probably have realized that they generally are deployed using (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time “Coordinated Universal Time”) as the default timezone. In (http://www.microsoft.com/WINDOWS “Windows”) I was very familiar modifying that but now that I have deployed an Ubuntu server I wasn’t sure where to begin. Every time I executed a php script on the terminal I got a warning that I should not rely on the server timezone (UTC) but set the right one on my php.ini file. I ended up doing that but I realized all the logs, etc are still based on the UTC timezone so I decided it was time to set my timezone on my Ubuntu server.

It turns out it is rather simple, just a few commands and considerations and you are set and done!

I. Verify the current settings and time using date (there is also a timezone file in /etc/timezone):

date Wed Dec 10 04:10:03 UTC 2013

or as mentioned you should also check what is your current time zone (in my case, I was originally in UTC)

more /etc/timezone Etc/UTC

II. To change the timezone you need to execute sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata.

This will launch an interface for you to select the timezone from a number of options. If you have installed Ubuntu Server before it is the same screen as when you install your server. When you are done you´ll receive the following output on the terminal:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata Current default time zone: ‘America/Mexico_City’ Local time is now: Tue Dec 09 22:12:45 CST 2013. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Time “Universal Time”) is now: Wed Dec 10 04:12:45 UTC 2013.

as you can see this is rather simple.

III. Don’t forget to restart cron

Otherwise it won’t pick up the timezone change. If possible I recommend a whole server restart just to make sure everything picks up the change: sudo service cron restart

(http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_h.png?x-id=c730fb12-a136-4873-8ae2-b84cdef74890)](http://www.zemanta.com/?px “Enhanced by Zemanta”)

Summary

You’ve successfully learned set the timezone on ubuntu server. If you run into any issues, double-check the prerequisites and ensure your Ubuntu environment is properly configured.