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Short guide for setting server timezone in both Ubuntu and Amazon linux.

Ubuntu

Is much easier (and nicer) in Ubuntu.  Simply

sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

and follow the prompts.

Amazon Linux

Find your timezone with

ls /usr/share/zoneinfo

Note some the of the outputs are folders which contain the timezone (these were coloured blue).  For example, Canberra (where I currently reside) is under the Australia folder.  Make note of the path to your timezone (e.g. mine was Australia/Canberra).

We need to edit the /etc/sysconfig/clock file:

sudo nano /etc/sysconfig/clock

Change the "zone" value to equal your timezone.  For example, I changed mine to:

ZONE="Australia/Canberra"

Finally, we create a symbolic link to /etc/timezone

sudo ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Australia/Canberra /etc/localtime

Reboot and you're done... don't know about you but I prefer the Ubuntu way...

References

  1. http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/set-time.html
  2. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuTime