ApsaraDB RDS:Change time zone

Use cases

You need to change the time zone of an RDS MySQL instance in the following scenarios:

• The time zone of your RDS MySQL instance does not match your business region. For example, RDS MySQL instances created before May 30, 2021 use the SYSTEM time zone by default, which may differ from your business region.

• Countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and parts of Europe switch between daylight saving time and winter time, requiring a manual time zone adjustment. For example, when the United Kingdom switches from winter time (UTC) to daylight saving time, you must change the time zone from UTC to UTC+1.

Considerations

• After you change the time zone parameter, you must restart the instance for the new setting to take effect. We recommend that you perform this operation during off-peak hours and ensure that your application has a reconnection mechanism.

• If the default_time_zone parameter of MySQL is set to SYSTEM, the following risks may occur:

  • Inconsistent time between primary and secondary nodes

    For a high-availability instance that uses a high-performance local disk, different operating system time zones on the primary and secondary nodes can cause inconsistent MySQL time zones. In extreme cases, this can affect data consistency.

  • Decreased instance performance

    If your services frequently use TIMESTAMP type fields, time zone conversions may cause lock contention, which can lead to fluctuations in instance performance.

  • Inconsistent parsing of the CST time zone between JDBC and MySQL

    The CST time zone abbreviation is ambiguous: MySQL interprets it as China Standard Time (UTC+08:00) by default, while some JDBC versions (such as 8.0.22 and 8.0.23) interpret it as American Central Time (UTC - 6). When the host operating system time zone is CST, JDBC may read or write incorrect data to MySQL. For a typical example, see The time zone CST has different meanings on MySQL Server and on connector/j.

Change the time zone in the console

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 navigation pane on the left, click Parameters.

3. On the Modifiable Parameters tab, find the default_time_zone parameter, click Running Parameter Value, and in the dialog box that appears, modify the time zone value.

   Note

   For more information about the values of the default_time_zone parameter, see Time zones and UTC offsets.

4. Click Apply Changes. In the dialog box that appears, select when you want the change to take effect, and then click OK.

   Note

   If you want to cancel the modification before you apply the changes, click Cancel Changes.

Change the time zone via API

Request example

The following example calls the ModifyParameter API operation to change the value of the default_time_zone parameter to +9:00.

...
// Parameter settings for API request
        ModifyParameterRequest modifyParameterRequest = ModifyParameterRequest.builder()
                .DBInstanceId("rm-bp1l94k5sw1zxxxxx")
                .parameters("{"default_time_zone":"+9:00"}")
                .forcerestart(true)
                // Request-level configuration rewrite, can set Http request parameters, etc.
                // .requestConfiguration(RequestConfiguration.create().setHttpHeaders(new HttpHeaders()))
                .build();
...

JSON-formatted response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type:application/json
{
  "RequestId": "6D698793-FC2B-5FC1-A6DF-33EDAD1AD6AB"
}

Verify the time zone change

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 navigation pane on the left, click Parameters.

3. On the Edit History tab, verify that the time zone parameter is updated.

   The value of the default_time_zone parameter is changed from SYSTEM to +9:00.

Time zone and UTC offset reference

FAQ

Related API

You can modify default_time_zone by calling the ModifyParameter API.