Introduction
	Your VPS keeps time in two parts: the system clock, which is best left running in UTC, and a time zone setting that translates that clock into the local time you see in date, in log timestamps, in mail headers, and in cron jobs. Both systems share the standard IANA time-zone database (the zoneinfo, or Olson, database) under /usr/share/zoneinfo/, with zones named Area/Location — for example America/New_York, Europe/London, or Asia/Tokyo. The current time in several common zones is shown next; the full set is organized by region farther down.
	The Current Time
	The time right now in several common zones (this page refreshes every 15 minutes):  Description   Zone  Current Date & Time  Greenwich Mean Time   Etc/GMT   Thu, 02 Jul 2026   21:18:02   GMT    Eastern Time   America/New_York   Thu, 02 Jul 2026   17:18:02   EDT    Central Time   America/Chicago   Thu, 02 Jul 2026   16:18:02   CDT    Mountain Time   America/Denver   Thu, 02 Jul 2026   15:18:02   MDT    Mountain Time (no DST)   America/Phoenix   Thu, 02 Jul 2026   14:18:02   MST    Pacific Time   America/Los_Angeles   Thu, 02 Jul 2026   14:18:02   PDT    Alaska Time   America/Anchorage   Thu, 02 Jul 2026   13:18:02   AKDT    Hawaii Time   Pacific/Honolulu   Thu, 02 Jul 2026   11:18:02   HST   Sampled Thu, 02 Jul 2026 21:18:02 GMT.
	Browse Time Zones by Region
	The database holds roughly 400 zones, organized by region. Pick a region to see its zones, each with its current time: Africa America Antarctica Asia Australia Europe GMT / UTC Atlantic / Pacific / Indian Oceans
	Setting the System Time Zone
	Set the zone once for the whole server. You will need to be root, so connect to your VPS and become root first. On FreeBSD 15, run tzsetup. With no argument it presents a region and zone menu; given a zone name it sets it without prompting. It writes /etc/localtime and records the name in /var/db/zoneinfo: # tzsetup # interactive menu # tzsetup America/New_York # or set it directly On Rocky Linux 10, use timedatectl, which points /etc/localtime at the correct file for you: # timedatectl set-timezone America/New_York Confirm the result with date on either system; on Rocky Linux, timedatectl on its own shows a full summary: $ date $ timedatectl TIP: Prefer the Area/Location names over the old three-letter abbreviations such as EST or PST. The abbreviations are ambiguous and do not handle daylight-saving on their own, whereas America/New_York switches between EST and EDT automatically, and correctly, for every date past and future.
	Setting a Per-Account Time Zone
	Usually the system-wide setting is all you need. If a single account must run in a different zone, set the TZ environment variable in that user's shell startup file; it overrides the system zone for that login only. For sh / bash (the default login shell on Rocky Linux, and available on FreeBSD), add to ~/.profile or ~/.bash_profile: export TZ=America/New_York For csh / tcsh (the traditional FreeBSD shell), add to ~/.cshrc: setenv TZ America/New_York The change takes effect at your next login, or immediately if you re-read the file (for example source ~/.cshrc).
	Keeping the Clock Accurate
	A time zone only labels the clock; it does not keep it correct. Run a network time service so the clock stays synchronized to within a few milliseconds — important for log correlation, mail, TLS certificate checks, and anything time-sensitive. On FreeBSD 15, enable the bundled ntpd: # sysrc ntpd_enable=YES # service ntpd start # ntpq -p On Rocky Linux 10, the default time service is chrony: # systemctl enable --now chronyd # chronyc sources # chronyc tracking
	Documentation
	The manual pages cover the tools — tzsetup(8) on FreeBSD, timedatectl(1) on Rocky Linux, and tzfile(5) (the zoneinfo file format) on both. The authoritative reference for the zone names and their rules is the IANA database: IANA Time Zone Database FreeBSD Handbook: Configuration and Tuning Rocky Linux Documentation