C_PERIOD tasks without timezone use UTC/don't inherit client tz

Products

• CA Automic Workload Automation - Automation Engine

Issue/Introduction

In 21.0, if a task is executed recurring and no timezone is specified, or a PERIOD object is used that has no time zone specified, the task will default to using UTC.  This behavior is different than 12.3 where the client timezone was inherited.

Steps to reproduce with AZ timezone as an example:
1) Have a client with timezone TZ.AZT defined in the client
2) Also add the timezone to the User settings
3) Create a simple script object - content does not matter
4) Go to Execute -> Execute Recurring and put in the following:
     Time Zone: NO TIMEZONE
  "in intervals of every" 6:00 hhh:mm
  "Between" 16:40 and 23:59
  "Adjust initial start to a clock-time interval" checked
  Click Apply
5) Let this run for 24 hours
6) Go to Process Monitoring and look at executions for script executed in #4 above

Expected behavior: 
   Task should have inherited timezone from client and run at 16:40 and 22:40 (Arizona time)
   
Actual behavior:
   Task ran at 0940 and 1540 Arizona Time - did not inherit client time zone but instead used UTC

Environment

Automic Automation 21.0

Cause

Product defect

Resolution

This will be fixed in 21.0.10 (currently set to release in Spring of 2024) so that the behavior is the same as it was in previous versions - the periodic tasks will inherit the timezone from the client.

In the meantime, always specify a timezone when running recurring tasks.