Register * You must register for access to some support pages  FAQ Search   Support Main Menu  Entry #288: How can I compare Trace Files from different time zones? Question How can I compare Trace Files from different time zones? Answer Modification of Collection time zone for UNIX 4.3 agents When comparing trace files generated from systems that are located in different time zones, it is often useful to change the apparent time zones of some or all of the machines so that the data is synchronized. This may be necessary to correlate or consolidate the data from multiple machines. The vpcom process determines the time zone from the TZ environment variable. Depending on the details of the system, TZ is either set in the bin/dsc script, or inherited from the environment of the user account that started the software. The bin/dsc script tests for the /etc/TIMEZONE file, and if this is present, uses it to set the TZ environment variable. To override the default time zone, the bin/dsc file should be modified to set TZ. This should be done after the /etc/TIMEZONE file has been read. For example, to change the time zone to Coordinated Universal Time (GMT): After these lines: if [ -x /etc/TIMEZONE ]; then . /etc/TIMEZONE # Make sure TZ is in the environment export TZ fi Add these lines: TZ=GMT export TZ Alternatively, to set the time zone to US Eastern time, add these lines: TZ=EST5EDT export TZ TZ may be set to any value supported by the operating system. See the operating system documentation for details. On some systems, this is shown by the "man environ" or "man date" command. You can also find a list of valid TZ strings in the "tztab" file, whose location may vary from system to system. Symptoms Comparing trace files from different times zones yields data that needs to be reconciled. Cause Different time zone locations.