Set the timezone for the Java environment
Platform notice: Server and Data Center only. This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Server and Data Center platforms.
Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
Overview
Functionality within Jira applications may be reliant upon the timezone that is configured for the Java environment. The timezone value will be picked up by default from the operating system, however it is possible to alter this default by passing an additional parameter to the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
The timezone can be edited by changing the server clock on the server that is running JAVA or changing the properties as explained below.
Changing the Timezone
The value of the timezone can be altered with the below JVM argument, which is set as per our Setting Properties and Options on Startup documentation. The below example would be used to set it for America/Chicago:
-Duser.timezone=America/ChicagoIf the Jira Data Center application is using a cluster of nodes, and if the nodes have different Timezone settings, there can be unwanted issues such as:
- Time differences in the date/time fields of the same Jira issue across the nodes.
- Cluster Index Replication health check reports delay when the database is in a different timezone than Jira.
- Incorrect timestamps displayed in Jira server
The List of TZ Database Time Zones documentation on Wikipedia contains further information on the different Timezones that can be set.
Example Timezones
| Timezone | Code |
|---|---|
| Sydney | Australia/Sydney |
| Los Angeles | America/Los_Angeles |
| New York | America/New_York |
| Paris | Europe/Paris |
| Rome | Europe/Rome |
| UTC | UTC |
| Madrid | Europe/Madrid |