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ApsaraDB RDS:Change the character set collation and time zone of system databases on an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance

Last Updated:Mar 19, 2024

If the character set collation and time zone of your ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance do not match business logic or your application needs to handle the data of multiple time zones, you can change the character set collation and time zone of the RDS instance. This ensures that the data is correctly converted and displayed in different time zones.

Background information

  • The default character set collation is Chinese_PRC_CI_AS.

  • The default time zone is China Standard Time.

  • ApsaraDB RDS provides the following system databases: master, msdb, tempdb, and model.

Note
  • You can view the available character set collations and time zones in the ApsaraDB RDS console by following the instructions in this topic.

  • To change the character set collation of a self-managed database, you can run the alter database <The name of the self-managed database> collate <The character set collation that you want to use> command.

Change the character set collation of system databases

Note
  • Before you change the character set collation of system databases, make sure that no user databases are created on your RDS instance. If a user database exists on the RDS instance, the option for the change of character set collation is not displayed in the ApsaraDB RDS console.

  • If you have just deleted databases from your RDS instance, the deletion task may be pending on the secondary RDS instance. Before you can change the character set collation and time zone, make sure that neither your RDS instance nor its secondary RDS instance contains user databases. This prevents conflicts.

  1. Go to the Instances page. In the top navigation bar, select the region in which the RDS instance resides. Then, find the RDS instance and click the ID of the instance.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, click Databases.

  3. On the Databases page, click Modify Character Set Collation.

  4. In the dialog box that appears, configure the Character Set Collation Rule parameters and click OK.

    Important

    When you change the character set collation of system databases on an RDS instance, the instance is restarted. During the restart, the RDS instance is unavailable for 2 to 10 minutes.

  5. Go to the Basic Information page and view the new character set collation.

    image

Change the time zone

Note

You cannot change the time zones of RDS instances that belong to the shared instance family. For more information, see Overview of instance families.

  1. Go to the Instances page. In the top navigation bar, select the region in which the RDS instance resides. Then, find the RDS instance and click the ID of the instance.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, click Databases.

  3. On the Databases page, click Change Time Zone.

  4. In the dialog box that appears, configure the Time Zone parameter and click OK. For more information, see Time zones and UTC offsets.

    Important

    When you change the time zone of an RDS instance, the RDS instance is restarted. If the RDS instance runs RDS High-availability Edition or RDS Cluster Edition, the RDS instance is stopped for up to 1 minute. If the RDS instance runs RDS Basic Edition, the RDS instance is stopped for up to 5 minutes. During the downtime, the RDS instance is unavailable.

  5. In the dialogue box that appears, click OK.

  6. Go to the Basic Information page and view the new time zone.

    image

Time zones and UTC offsets

Time zone

UTC offset

Description

Afghanistan Standard Time

(UTC+04:30)

Kabul

Alaskan Standard Time

(UTC-09:00)

Alaska

Arabian Standard Time

(UTC+04:00)

Abu Dhabi, Muscat

Atlantic Standard Time

(UTC-04:00)

Atlantic Time (Canada)

AUS Central Standard Time

(UTC+09:30)

Darwin

AUS Eastern Standard Time

(UTC+10:00)

Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney

Belarus Standard Time

(UTC+03:00)

Minsk

Canada Central Standard Time

(UTC-06:00)

Saskatchewan

Cape Verde Standard Time

(UTC-01:00)

Cabo Verde Is.

Cen. Australia Standard Time

(UTC+09:30)

Adelaide

Central America Standard Time

(UTC-06:00)

Central America

Central Asia Standard Time

(UTC+06:00)

Astana

Central Brazilian Standard Time

(UTC-04:00)

Cuiaba

Central Europe Standard Time

(UTC+01:00)

Belgrade, Bratislava, Budapest, Ljubljana, Prague

Central European Standard Time

(UTC+01:00)

Sarajevo, Skopje, Warsaw, Zagreb

Central Pacific Standard Time

(UTC+11:00)

Solomon Islands, New Caledonia

Central Standard Time

(UTC-06:00)

Central Time (US and Canada)

Central Standard Time (Mexico)

(UTC-06:00)

Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey

China Standard Time

(UTC+08:00)

Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong, Urumqi

E. Africa Standard Time

(UTC+03:00)

Nairobi

E. Australia Standard Time

(UTC+10:00)

Brisbane

E. Europe Standard Time

(UTC+02:00)

Chisinau

E. South America Standard Time

(UTC-03:00)

Brasilia

Eastern Standard Time

(UTC-05:00)

Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Georgian Standard Time

(UTC+04:00)

Tbilisi

GMT Standard Time

(UTC)

Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London

Greenland Standard Time

(UTC-03:00)

Greenland

Greenwich Standard Time

(UTC)

Monrovia, Reykjavik

GTB Standard Time

(UTC+02:00)

Athens, Bucharest

Hawaiian Standard Time

(UTC-10:00)

Hawaii

India Standard Time

(UTC+05:30)

Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi

Jordan Standard Time

(UTC+02:00)

Amman

Korea Standard Time

(UTC+09:00)

Seoul

Middle East Standard Time

(UTC+02:00)

Beirut

Mountain Standard Time

(UTC-07:00)

Mountain Time (US and Canada)

Mountain Standard Time (Mexico)

(UTC-07:00)

Chihuahua, La Paz, Mazatlan

US Mountain Standard Time

(UTC-07:00)

Arizona

New Zealand Standard Time

(UTC+12:00)

Auckland, Wellington

Newfoundland Standard Time

(UTC-03:30)

Newfoundland

Pacific SA Standard Time

(UTC-03:00)

Santiago

Pacific Standard Time

(UTC-08:00)

Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Pacific Standard Time (Mexico)

(UTC-08:00)

Baja California

Russian Standard Time

(UTC+03:00)

Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd

SA Pacific Standard Time

(UTC-05:00)

Bogota, Lima, Quito, Rio Branco

SE Asia Standard Time

(UTC+07:00)

Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta

China Standard Time

(UTC+08:00)

Kuala Lumpur, Singapore

Tokyo Standard Time

(UTC+09:00)

Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo

US Eastern Standard Time

(UTC-05:00)

Indiana (East)

UTC

UTC

Coordinated Universal Time

UTC-02

(UTC-02:00)

Coordinated Universal Time-02

UTC-08

(UTC-08:00)

Coordinated Universal Time-08

UTC-09

(UTC-09:00)

Coordinated Universal Time-09

UTC-11

(UTC-11:00)

Coordinated Universal Time-11

UTC+12

(UTC+12:00)

Coordinated Universal Time+12

W. Australia Standard Time

(UTC+08:00)

Perth

W. Central Africa Standard Time

(UTC+01:00)

West Central Africa

W. Europe Standard Time

(UTC+01:00)

Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna

References

You can call the following operations to query or change the character set collation and time zone of an instance: