Timezone Problem in Java / Linux

Question

Hi! I have an application running in cluster mode (two nodes) under tomcat/Linux. Unfortunately I've noticed that node1 and node2 have different time settings. When in a shell I punch "date" I get at both machines the same:

  > date  --rfc-2822
    Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:00:15 +0200

I wrote a small java program which only prints the formatted date (and time).

import java.util.Date;
import java.util.TimeZone; 

public class TimeTest {

    public static void main(String args[]) {
    long time = System.currentTimeMillis();
    String millis = Long.toString(time);

    Date date = new Date(time);
    System.out.println("Current time in milliseconds = " + millis + " => " + date.toString());
    System.out.println("Current time zone: " + TimeZone.getDefault().getID());
    }
}

At one node I am getting: Current time in milliseconds = 1256215701981 => Thu Oct 22 13:48:21 GMT+01:00 2009 Current time zone: GMT+01:00

whereas at the other node I am getting: Current time in milliseconds = 1256215779203 => Thu Oct 22 14:49:39 CEST 2009 Current time zone: Europe/Berlin

Is this a Linux setting or a java setting? In any case, how can I change this?

Thanks in advance!

Luis

Answer 1

According to the documentation the source of the default TimeZone may vary with implementation. For your case it seems that one server is using Daylight Savings and the other is not.

Also, this question may be helpful.