AIX Timezone

Summary: ALthough AIX is by now on version 7.3 I find these old pages so fascinating I decided to keep them. On this page I'll show you how to set the timezone manually as this could be a problem under specific circumstances. This page is for AIX 5.3 and AIX 6.1.
Date: Between 2010-2013
Refactor: 21 December 2024: Checked formatting.

aix

We experienced problems setting the timezone in a mixed AIX 6.1 NIM environment with AIX 5.3 clients.
After installing clients we need to set the timezone manually.

Set Timezone

First check Timezone

>echo $TZ
Europe/Amsterdam

This is a AIX 6.1 timezone, we need to set this to AIX 5.3 timezone:

smitty
- System Environments
  - Change / Show Date, Time, and Time Zone
    - Change Time Zone Using System Entered Values
    - Select yes for Daylight Saving Time
    - Select '(CET-1CEST) Central Europe (CUT +1)' for 'CUT (Coordinated Universal Time) Time Zone'

Check and set the values as listed below:

  Time zone                                           CET-1CEST
  Day Light Savings Time Offset from CUT([+|-]HH:MM: [-2]
  SS)
  Start Daylight Savings Day([Mmm.ww.dd|Jn])         [M3.5.0]
  Start Daylight Savings Time(HH:MM:SS)              [02:00]
  Stop Daylight Savings Day([Mmm.ww.dd|Jn])          [M10.5.0]
  Stop Daylight Savings Time(HH:MM:SS)               [03:00]

Now you have to do a reboot.
After the reboot the timezone will be displayed like this:

>echo $TZ
CET-1CEST-2,M3.5.0/02:00,M10.5.0/03:00