UTC timezone in a VMware Tanzu Application Service (TAS) for VMs environment

Products

• Operations Manager

Issue/Introduction

All VMs generated by BOSH are configured by default to UTC time. As the default time, in the stemcell is set to UTC.

Furthermore, some external services require the time to be UTC. More information can be found in this documentation: https://docs.pivotal.io/application-service/2-10/operating/requirements.html
 

Environment

Product Version: 2.10

Resolution

It is considered best practice for any system to use a UTC timestamp by default. In general, it helps to maintain the compatibility with any external component connected to the foundation.

Refer to the following link for more information: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3339#section-4.1
 

"Because the daylight saving rules for local time zones are so convoluted and can change based on local law at unpredictable times true interoperability is best achieved by using Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). This specification does not cater to local time zone rules."