Question Re: Timezone per server/database in Technology Q&A

Timezone per server/database

Former Member — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:24:25 GMT

We host database for some online applications and some of our new customers are located in another timezone.

Since we have all database running in just one box, is that possible to configure timezone in database/db server, this way sa will not use OS timezone.

Re: Timezone per server/database

VolkerBarth — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:43:51 GMT

What version are you using?

AFAIK, v12 has introduced the new data type TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE and the new special value CURRENT UTC TIMESTAMP exactly for such use cases.

Re: Timezone per server/database

Former Member — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:44:57 GMT

Actually it's all in 11. We are planning to upgrade to 12 this year.

Re: Timezone per server/database

Former Member — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:01:48 GMT

FYI, DEFAULT UTC TIMESTAMP and CURRENT UTC TIMESTAMP have been around since version 8, but before version 12 their type was TIMESTAMP.

Re: Timezone per server/database

VolkerBarth — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:24:00 GMT

Now I'm somewhat puzzled what exactly has been improved with v12:

Does v8+ (and the "time_zone_adjustment" option) allow a client to adjust the display of UTC time values to the local timezone (i.e. it allows to correct between displayed and stored times? (But one should still store UTC times in case different time zones do matter, e.g. with the help of DEFAULT/CURRENT UTC TIMESTAMP.)
Whereas the v12 TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE type allows the storage of times with local time zone information, so clients do not need to adjust the display, and the time can still be stored in a standardized way?

Re: Timezone per server/database

Former Member — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 16:06:21 GMT

Before version 12, one always needed to know what timezone was used for values in timestamp columns. All that DEFAULT/CURRENT UTC TIMESTAMP provided were ways to get UTC timestamps instead of the timestamps in the local server OS timezone provided by DEFAULT/CURRENT TIMESTAMP.

Re: Timezone per server/database

former_SQLA_member1694901 — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 05:58:52 GMT

In the option "PUBLIC.time_zone" with "Simulated Time Zones" seems to do this in the current version (Anywhere 17)

CREATE TIME ZONE NewSouthWales OFFSET '10:00'
STARTING 'Oct/Sun>=1' AT '2:00'
ENDING 'Apr/Sun>=1' AT '2:00';

SET OPTION PUBLIC.time_zone='NewSouthWales';