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NTP & Time Zones

With the upcoming time zone changes, it's worth remembering how NTP works and why it doesn't matter what timezone you have devices in.

NTP and UTC both work in the same way, time is pulled from a time source (generally a server on the Internet) as time in UTC.
The Operating System THEN applies any offset for the relevant time zone that the server lives in.
NTP cannot and will not change any clock on a server, it just advises the OS what the time should be and the OS makes the calls on changing the time. This means that a server in the UK cannot have its time set to a US state by an NTP server as everything will be operating in UTC "under the hood" with the server showing an offset that fits the timezone it's been set to display.

Gary Williams

Gary Williams

IT Person | Veeam Vanguard | VMware vExpert | Windows admin | Docker fan | Spiceworks moderator | keeper of 3 cats | Avid Tea fan

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