Changing the time zone and updating the hardware clock

In this recipe we will introduce the concept of TZDATA in order that we can learn how to change a server's time zone and update the hardware clock.

Over the lifetime of your server, the need to change the time and date for one or more users may not happen very often but when it does the process of managing this modification can seem to be quite complicated. You may want to make this change for any number of reasons, you can even use this approach to implement an independent time zone solution for different users, but regardless as to the reason why, it is the purpose of this recipe to illustrate a series of best practices that can be applied to your server and provide you with the solution you need.

Getting ready

To complete this recipe, you will require a working installation of the CentOS 6 operating system with root privileges, a console-based text editor of your choice, and a connection to the Internet to facilitate the download...