A correct date time in a newly installed server is important, but it’s overlooked sometimes until it cause some strange problems in synchronization of data between servers.
Here’s a simple guide to remember in setting Linux CentOS 7.2 date timezone.
Check the current date/timezone:
# date
Thu Aug 25 02:42:13 UTC 2016
Check available timezone:
# timedatectl list-timezones
Africa/Abidjan
Africa/Accra
Africa/Addis_Ababa
Africa/Algiers
Africa/Asmara
Africa/Bamako
Africa/Bangui
Africa/Banjul
…
Pacific/Pohnpei
Pacific/Port_Moresby
Pacific/Rarotonga
Pacific/Saipan
Pacific/Tahiti
Pacific/Tarawa
Pacific/Tongatapu
Pacific/Wake
Pacific/Wallis
UTC
#
Check available timezone from Asia:
# timedatectl list-timezones | grep Asia
Asia/Aden
Asia/Almaty
Asia/Amman
Asia/Anadyr
Asia/Aqtau
Asia/Aqtobe
Asia/Ashgabat
Asia/Baghdad
Asia/Bahrain
Asia/Baku
Asia/Bangkok
…
Asia/Tokyo
Asia/Tomsk
Asia/Ulaanbaatar
Asia/Urumqi
Asia/Ust-Nera
Asia/Vientiane
Asia/Vladivostok
Asia/Yakutsk
Asia/Yekaterinburg
Asia/Yerevan
#
Set timezone to Asia/Bangkok:
# timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Bangkok
Check again the current date/timezone:
# date
Thu Aug 25 11:03:19 ICT 2016
#
The command timedatectl basically created a symlink between /etc/localtime to the desired timezone file in the system located in /usr/share/zoneinfo/ directory.
The link can be verified:
# ls -l /etc/localtime
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 34 Aug 25 11:03 /etc/localtime -> ../usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Bangkok
#
Thus, another way to set the date timezone by removing the existing localtime file:
#rm /etc/localtime
Create a new localtime file symbolic link to the timezone:
#ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Bangkok /etc/localtime
Verify again the link:
# ls -l /etc/localtime
/etc/localtime -> ../usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Bangkok
That concludes the steps in setting up Linux CentOS 7.2 Date Timezone and it might apply to other version of CentOS.