Configure Date and Time

Correct date and time settings are important for logs, scheduled tasks, and applications.

Prerequisites

Setting the Timezone

Run the timezone configuration wizard:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

Follow the on-screen prompts to select your region and timezone.

Set the timezone directly:

sudo timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Paris

Replace Europe/Paris with your desired timezone.List all available timezones:

timedatectl list-timezones

Common timezone values: Europe/Paris, Europe/London, America/New_York, Asia/Tokyo, UTC

Install and configure NTP:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ntp ntpdate -y

Sync time immediately:

sudo ntpdate pool.ntp.org

Enable time synchronization:

sudo timedatectl set-ntp true

To set the timezone for PHP applications:

Find the PHP config file

find /etc/ -name php.ini -type f

Edit the configuration

Open the php.ini file and add or modify:

date.timezone = "Europe/Paris"

Restart web server

sudo systemctl restart apache2
# or
sudo systemctl restart php-fpm

Check current date, time, and timezone:

timedatectl