Multiple time zones - Metasys - LIT-1201519 - MS-NAE35xx-2 - MS-NAE45xx-2 - MS-NAE5510-2U - MS-NAE5510-3U - MS-NAE551S-2 - MS-NAE55xx-3 - MS-NCE25xx-0 - MS-NXE85SW-x - Supervisory Device - NAE35 Network Automation Engine - NAE45 Network Automation Engine - NAE55 Network Automation Engine - NAE85 Network Automation Engine - NCE25 Network Control Engine - 11.0

Starting at Metasys Release 8.0, multiple time zones are supported for Metasys Servers and network engines, provided that you set the time zones correctly. For network engines that are located in different time zones, the time synchronization occurs in Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) time, not in the time zone of the Site Director. For more details, see Multiple time zones.

The time zone of the Site Director defaults to (UTC-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada). If your site is not in the Central time zone, set the time zone for your location. When you set the time zone in the Site Director, it propagates the current time to all the engines and Metasys Servers on the site. You must set the time zone in the Site Director even if you select a site time server. In addition, you must set the time zone in all non-Site Director Metasys Servers after installing each server.

With Release 8.0 or later, multiple time zones are supported for network engines that are located in different regions of the world. The Default Time Zone attribute in the network engine's Site object provides this time zone capability. The attribute has a drop-down list of all available world time zones. You use it to identify the local time zone where the engine is located. Selecting a time zone means that the operator is no longer required to apply time zone math when working with Schedule objects defined at the engine. The time zone you select is also applied to Schedule objects that you define at the engine.

By default, each updated network engine continues to time-sync with the Site Director, but the time sync occurs in UTC time. For example, a Site Director in the central time zone (UTC-06:00) that syncs with an engine in the mountain time zone (UTC-07:00) does not change the engine to the central time zone. The local time and date attributes of the Site Director show its local time and date as does the network engine. Also, consider the following important factors:

• Scheduling: schedules at each network engine execute relative to the local time zone of the engine, allowing you to schedule based on the local time zone, rather than the Site Director's time zone. Prior to Release 8.0, you had to take into account the local time zone of the engine, then mentally convert the time based on the time zone of the Site Director. These time zone calculations are no longer required.
• Historical data: alarms, audits, and trended values from engines that are viewed on the Site Director report in local UTC time. However, alarms, audits, and trended values from engines that are viewed on the engine itself report in local time.
• Other features: items such as Archive Date and ADS Delivery Time report in the local time of the engine.

To take advantage of the multi-time zone features, the Metasys Server Site Director and the network engines must be at Release 8.0 or later. If a site has a mixture of engines, some of which are at Release 7.0 or earlier, the older engines do not exhibit the multi-time zone behavior. For example, as Table 1 indicates, the local time of an NAE at Release 7.0 uses the Site Director's time, whereas an NAE at Release 8.0 or later uses a time specified by its Default Time Zone attribute.