RCDevs VM Appliance - Change Timezone

[Manfred Lang]

Hello folks,

how is it possible to change the timezone of an RCDevs VM Appliance without using vm_init again, because vm_init deletes all data.

Neither "timedatectl set-timezone" nor "/usr/bin/tzselect" result in a permanent change, a WebADM service restart resets the setting to the old value.

Best regards,

Manfred

[Spyridon Gouliarmis (RCDevs)]

Hello Manfred,

which version of WebADM are you running? The old versions (<1.5.6) set the timezone after reading time_zone in webadm.conf. The newer ones are supposed to use the system's configuration.

[Manfred Lang]

Hello Spyridon,

I'm using WebADM Enterprise Edition v2.4.9-1 on a RCDevs VMware Appliance 2.4.0 (based on Rocky Linux 9.6 Blue Onyx).

The Rocky Linux 9.6 timezone system configuration would be set by "/usr/bin/tzselect" or "timedatectl set-timezone", but WebADM will reset the setting after restart.

Any Idea?

Best regards, Manfred

Spyridon Gouliarmis (RCDevs) schrieb am Dienstag, 28. Oktober 2025 um 17:36:30 UTC+1:

Hello Manfred,

which version of WebADM are you running? The old versions (<1.5.6) set the timezone after reading time_zone in webadm.conf. The newer ones are supposed to use the system's configuration.

[Spyridon Gouliarmis (RCDevs)]

Out of curiosity, what does grep time_zone /opt/webadm/conf/webadm.conf give?

Also, can you check what ls -al /etc/localtime give right after you've reset the time zone, and then again after you've restarted the webadm service (and confirmed the time zone was changed)?

[Manfred Lang]

Hello Spyridon,

my solution was your hint to the /etc/localtime symbolic link 👍

/opt/webadm/bin/webadm stop
systemctl stop mariadb

timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Berlin

 => Failed to set time zone: Access denied

ls -al /etc/localtime
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 24 Oct 23 16:15 /etc/localtime -> /usr/share/zoneinfo/Etc/

Now I've brought out the sledgehammer:

 

rm /etc/localtime
ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin /etc/localtime

reboot

All good now !!!

Many thanks to you, Spyridon, you made my day 👍

Best regards, Manfred

Spyridon Gouliarmis (RCDevs) schrieb am Dienstag, 28. Oktober 2025 um 18:09:13 UTC+1:

Out of curiosity, what does grep time_zone /opt/webadm/conf/webadm.conf give?

Also, can you check what ls -al /etc/localtime give right after you've reset the time zone, and then again after you've restarted the webadm service (and confirmed the time zone was changed)?

[Manfred Lang]

Hello  Spyridon,

Spyridon, you made my day, thank you. The decisive tip was the symbolic link to /etc/localtime. Apparently, Rocky Linux 9.6 has a bug here. The symbolic link to /etc/localtime cannot be created by timedatectl (permission denied). My solution was as follows:

Because the system is already clustered, stop the services as a precaution:

/opt/webadm/bin/webadm stop
systemctl stop mariadb
timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Berlin

Then the brute force:

rm /etc/localtime
ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin /etc/localtime
reboot

Best regards and thanks a lot, Manfred

Spyridon Gouliarmis (RCDevs) schrieb am Dienstag, 28. Oktober 2025 um 18:09:13 UTC+1:

Out of curiosity, what does grep time_zone /opt/webadm/conf/webadm.conf give?

Also, can you check what ls -al /etc/localtime give right after you've reset the time zone, and then again after you've restarted the webadm service (and confirmed the time zone was changed)?