How to change Time Zone of Linux server

In this article I will try to briefly explain about how you can change Time Zone of your Linux box. Please following below mentioned points and you are done with it.

1. Logged in as root, check which timezone your machine is currently using by executing `date`. You'll see something like Mon 17 Jan 2005 12:15:08 PM PST, PST in this case is the current timezone.

2. Go to the directory /usr/share/zoneinfo here you will find a list of time zone regions. Choose the most appropriate region, if you live in Canada or the US this directory is the "America" directory.

3. If you wish, backup the previous timezone configuration by copying it to a different location. Such as

mv /etc/localtime /etc/localtime-old

4. Create a symbolic link from the appropiate timezone to /etc/localtime. Example:

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Amsterdam /etc/localtime

5. If you have the utility rdate, update the current system time by executing

/usr/bin/rdate -s time.nist.gov

6. Set the ZONE entry in the file /etc/sysconfig/clock file (e.g."America/Los_Angeles")

7. Set the hardware clock by executing:

/sbin/hwclock --systohc

That's it. I hope you will find this article helpful.