Create or Edit a Timezone

Products

• CA Service Management - Service Desk Manager
• CA Service Desk Manager

Issue/Introduction

While Service Desk Manager currently comes with 42 built-in time zones (as of version 17.1) to cover most use cases, there is always the possibility that your organization's requirements could call for a time zone we don't currently provide. If you are doing business in a region not covered by our built-in timezones, if a particular area does not follow the local Daylight Saving Time rules, or if the DST schedule has recently changed, it may be necessary to create a new timezone or modify an existing one. This document covers the steps required to create or edit a timezone, with an explanation of what each field does.

Environment

Release: 14.1 or higher
Component:  CA Service Desk Manager

Resolution

To create or edit a timezone, perform the following steps:

1. Log in to Service Desk Manager with administrative credentials. Navigate to the Administration tab > Service Desk > Application Data > Codes > Timezones. 
    
2. Select a timezone from the list if you wish to edit one. If you prefer to create a new timezone, click the Create New button at the upper right of the list. 
    
3. The timezone edit window is displayed. Fill in the fields according to the guidance below, noting that anything with an asterisk (*) is a required field. 
   
   
   
   1. Symbol* is the name by which timezones are listed and referenced within the product. This is typically the common name for your selected time zone, such as "Indian Standard Time" or "Eastern Time" for major time zones, and "Arizona" or "Australia - Western" for more region-specific time zones.
       
   2. Code* is typically used to show the offset of this timezone from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Examples include "GMT+0530", "GMT-0500", or "GMT". As this value needs to be unique, it may sometimes be necessary to add a number in parentheses to the code, as we've done with "New Zealand", listed as "GMT+1200 (2)".
      Note: Once the Code* value has been set, it cannot be edited.
       
   3. GMT Delta is the same offset as above, but in an internally-readable form for calculation purposes. This is listed as a positive or negative number of seconds to offset this time zone from GMT. As an example, US Eastern time is GMT-0500, so this field would read "-18000" (-5 hours x 60 minutes x 60 seconds), while Indian Standard Time is GMT+0530, so this field would read "19800" (5.5 hours x 60 minutes x 60 seconds). For the GMT timezone, this value is 0.
       
   4. Record Status* defines whether or not this time zone is available for use . "Active" means the record is available, while "Inactive" hides it from normal use. An Inactive time zone is not deleted, and still exists in the system, in case an event or other record references it - this is similar to how setting most items to Inactive works in Service Desk Manager. There is generally no need to ever completely delete a timezone or other record from Service Desk Manager.
       
   5. Description is an optional field where you can provide more details about your time zone. In cases where a single region may have multiple time zones, or if a time zone has multiple common names, this field is useful for that clarifying information.
       
   6. Daylight Saving Time Delta (Enter 0 to Ignore DST) is an integer field that lists the DST offset in seconds. This value is added to the current time at the date listed below in the "Daylight Saving Time STARTS" section, and is no longer applied from the date listed in the "Daylight Saving Time ENDS" section. For most regions that observe DST, this value will be "3600" (60 minutes x 60 seconds). If your region observes Daylight Saving Time in a different manner, such as shifting the time by an amount other than one hour, this value will be different for your custom time zone. As noted in the field's name, if your timezone does not change with DST, set this value to 0 to disable any DST changes.
       
   7. Use as System Default is a checkbox that controls whether this timezone is the default one for this server. This field is unchecked when a new timezone is created, and currently no built-in timezone has this box checked. Checking this box will cause newly-created records that use timezones (such as Service Types) to use the selected timezone by default.
       
   8. The Daylight Saving Time STARTS section covers when DST takes effect in your region. You can specify the Start Position*, Start Day*, and Start Month* values if DST occurs on a particular floating day, such as the "SECOND" "SUNDAY" of "MARCH" for US Eastern time. If DST instead triggers on a specific date each year, rather than on a floating day, you can specify the date in the OR on this date field below. If specified, the date needs to be entered in the format "mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss", like "03/11/2018 02:00:00". 
       
   9. The Daylight Saving Time ENDS section covers when DST stops being in effect in your region. As with the section above, you can specify the End Position*, End Day*, and End Month* values if DST occurs on a particular floating day, such as on the "FIRST" "SUNDAY" of "NOVEMBER" for US Eastern time. If DST ends on a particular date rather than a floating day, you can specify the date in the OR on this date field below. If specified, the date needs to be entered in the format "mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss", like "03/11/2018 02:00:00". 
      Note: If the Daylight Saving Time Delta (Enter 0 to Ignore DST) field is set to "0", all of the options under the Daylight Saving Time STARTS and Daylight Saving Time ENDS sections are ignored, regardless of their value. Though the Position, Day, and Month fields are required, they can be left at any value if your timezone does not observe DST.
       
   10. Last Modified Date and Last Modified By are non-editable informational fields that lists the last time this timezone was edited through the web interface, and the last user to do so. Please note that if you use the pdm_load command or otherwise edit this data outside of the web interface, this timestamp and user ID may not be accurate.
4. Click the Save button to save and finalize your changes.
    
5. When it is convenient to do so, recycle the Service Desk Manager services. Timezones, Workshifts, SLA calculation, and other elements that involve calculating time often require a restart for changes to take effect.

Additional Information

For more information on how you can use Timezones in your Service Desk Manager environment, including associating them with contact records and Service Level Agreements (SLAs), please see the following documentation:

Time Zone Setup

Service Contracts