How to change the timezone on RSA NetWitness Platform appliance

Issue

How do I change the timezone on my RSA NetWitness Platform appliance?

Resolution

Time synchronization is very important to the proper operation of a NetWitness system.  For this reason, all NetWitness software makes use of the hardware clock on the appliance.  Even though Linux provides you with the means to "localize" your clock by setting a time zone, this is essentially a transformation whereby the operating system looks at the hardware clock on the appliance and then adds or subtracts the requisite number of hours to change UTC into your local time.

Since NetWitness appliances do not make use of the local time zone there is no action required or recommended on your part regarding changing the time zone.

To continue to change the timezone you can link a timezone file to /etc/localtime.
The examples shown below change the timezone to Eastern Time and UTC.
 

Internal Comments

UserName:wirthr1
6/19/2012 5:27:16 PM - Solution Number 00000277
Solution Number 00000277

UserName:shurtj
6/17/2014 1:24:08 PM - Changed Article Type
Changed article from corrective to how-to and modified the statements accordingly to abide by Primus best practices.

Jemma Lee -- 10 Sep 2019
Adjusted the title to adhere to best practice and updated Product Set and Version/Condition. Added command for UTC time.

Product Details

RSA Product Set: NetWitness Platform
RSA Product/Service Type: NW Appliances
RSA Version/Condition: 10.6.x, 11.x
Platform: CentOS 6, 7

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