How to change default time zone in MySQL?

Is it possible to change the time zone in MySQL?

Yes we can change the default time zone in MySQL via command-line. We can’t change the time zone for a single DB, it’s a global change. To change this feature, you must have the root privilege to the server. We have to edit the MySQL configuration file to change the time zone of MySQL server from its default.

By default the MySQL server time is same as the SYSTEM time. We can check this by using the following commands:

To check the server time

>> date

Example

[root@vps ~]# date
Mon Feb 23 07:04:32 EST 2015

To check MySQL server time

>> mysql -e “SELECT NOW();”

[root@vps ~]# mysql -e "SELECT NOW();"
+---------------------+
| NOW()               |
+---------------------+
| 2015-02-23 07:04:30 |
+---------------------+

How to change the MySQL server time from command line?

We can change this by adding the following directives to the MySQL configuration file. Please do follow the steps pasted below:

>> Log into server as root user.
>> To check MySQL’s current time zone settings, execute the following command:

mysql -e “SELECT @@global.time_zone;”

Example

[root@vps ~]# mysql -e "SELECT @@global.time_zone;"
+--------------------+
| @@global.time_zone |
+--------------------+
| SYSTEM             |
+--------------------+

It means MySQL is using server SYSTEM default time. To change this, you need to add the following directive into the MySQL conf file.

>> “default-time-zone”

1, Open MySQL conf by using your favorite editor;

vi /etc/my.cnf

====
default-time-zone = '-06:00'
====

2, Restart MySQL

service mysql restart

That’s it!!! Now check the current MySQL server time by using the command mysql -e “SELECT NOW();”.

Try it and let me know if you have any questions on it.

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