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24

answers:

1
Q: 

Server timezone dilema

Hi Guys,

I have strange problem and would like to use one of yours opinion.

I am setting up servers grid, all will be based in UK at first and then expand to other countries. My problem is should I stick with GMT or use BST, what is your opinion in terms of global timezone settings.

cheers, /Marcin

A: 

I don't quite know where are you going to set 'global timezone', but if you want to know my opinion, I would always store time-related information in UTC (not in GMT, there is slight but important difference between them) and convert it to local user timezone upon displaying. That's just safer method.

BST have one inconvenient property – Daylight Saving Time. It changes so, there are dates that does not exist and dates which are here twice (I wrote few words about it on my blog). If you want to convert timezones, there could be an ambiguity. So just stick to UTC and there should be no problems with conversions.

Paweł Dyda  2010-10-19 13:16:42
I assumed that this is programming-related questions (that's what Stack Overflow is for), if it is infrastructure related, I don't think it is right place to ask (and that makes any difference, actually).
Paweł Dyda  2010-10-19 13:19:14

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