Time stamps in a ticket are showing up in the wrong time zone

Products

• Workflow Solution
• ServiceDesk

Issue/Introduction

When viewing a ticket in ServiceDesk, it is noted that some or all time stamps in the History appear from the wrong time zone.

Cause

The AD Server in ServiceDesk was not configured to use the correct time zone. This may have been caused also by specific user time zones being manually set incorrectly.

Resolution

This is a cosmetic issue that only affects viewing data from the specific browser of a user.

Verify that the AD Server in ServiceDesk is using the correct time zone. If not, users that are synced from Active Directory will have their time zones set incorrectly, resulting in the time stamp issue.

Update the AD Server

1. In Process Manager while logged in as a ServiceDesk administrator, go to the Admin menu > AD Servers.
2. Click on the lightning bolt icon for the AD Server and then click on Edit AD Server.
3. Change the AD Server Time Zone to be the time zone of the ServiceDesk server (which is where the AD Server should be located at as well). Note: By default, Casablanca is selected.
4. Enter the value for AD Elevated User Name.
5. Click on the Next button.
6. Click on the Save button.

Update the users

1. Go to the Admin menu > Users > Manage Users.
2. Click on the lightning bolt icon for the user to change then click on Manage User.
3. Click on the Process Manager Settings tab. 
4. Change the Select Time Zone to the appropriate time zone.
5. Click on the Save button. Note: Changing the AD Server's time zone does not change existing synced users; only new synced users will have these set. Users must be changed manually.

SQL workaround

The User table in SQL can be modified to bulk change users if all or many are affected by this issue. The following example SQL script can perform such a change. Warning: It is strongly recommended to back up the SQL Server Ensemble database before making any changes to it.

-- It will need to be determined what time zone is to be searched for, and what time zone is to be used. The exact text must be provided.
USE Ensemble
UPDATE [User]
SET SelectTimeZone = 'Pacific Standard Time'
WHERE SelectTimeZone = 'Eastern Standard Time'
SELECT SelectTimeZone FROM [User]

Workflow note

This can impact the Workflow product as well as ServiceDesk