Analytics & DST

[simonB2020]

My QR & QEM sit on 2XAWS EC2 instances, Windows OS. Timezone EST/EDT.

Analytics Repository is AWS Aurora (Postrgres).According to AWS the default is UTC.

My Analytics data (retrieval_time) is showing as matching Eastern Time values.

What I'm concerned about is (a) I need all my analytic data to be stamped by UTC and (b) conversions become complicated with DST.

What is the best way to get my analytics data by UTC time?

I have thought of altering the TZ at the windows OS level, but concerns this could affect other dependencies like maintenance & patching processes.

Any "best practices" anyone could share?

Thanks.

[DesmondWOO]

Hi @simonB2020 ,

Thank you for reaching out to Qlik Community.

What if you create a view and adjust the timestamp to match your specific timezone?

Regards,
Desmond

[simonB2020]

The field is a timestamp without time zone.
As I understand it, Postgres/Aurora would not know what time zone to convert the stamp from ?

[DesmondWOO]

Hi @simonB2020 ,

Suppose you retrieve data from the aem_task table. You might create a view using the following query 

select retrieval_time + interval '4 hours'....  

However, it is essential to exercise caution when dealing with daylight saving time (DST) and standard time.

Regards,
Desmond

[simonB2020]

Sure, the +4 or 5 hours is a quick-and-dirty fix, but unlikely to cope with changeovers.
I believe QR uses UTC under the covers, so should be feasible to change this behaviour - guess I'll have to submit an ideation.

[DesmondWOO]

Hi @simonB2020 ,

I agree with you. Please submit an ideation. If multiple Replicate servers are running in different timezone, it is difficult to compare the data. 

In fact, I’ve attempted an alternative approach by altering the data type to timestamptz. This modification allows you to retrieve the timezone value. It appears to be effective, but we need to verify the behavior with the R&D.

Regards,
Desmond

[Dana_Baldwin]

Hi @simonB2020 

Per Desmond's suggestion, you can submit a feature request at our ideation site here: https://community.qlik.com/t5/Ideas/idb-p/qlik-ideas

Thanks,

Dana