Can I specify a different timezone during operating system install?
The server is physically in the Pacific time zone (“America/Los_Angeles” on the install screen), and this is chosen by us as the default for uninterruptible and interactive installs. During interactive or manual install, you may specify any time zone of your choice—it affects only how time is displayed, not how the kernel keeps track of it. In fact, the kernel has no knowledge of the time zone that you have set, and always uses universal coordinated time (UTC). Only time/date library functions called from user programs know about the time zone. So when you type “date”, for example, the “date” program gets the UTC time from the kernel, and then calls a library function to convert it to your preferred time zone, only for displaying it to you.
