Deployment Guide

Date and time settings
Switches maintain the current date and time inside a battery-backed real-time clock (RTC) circuit that
receives the date and time from the fabric’s principal switch. Date and time are used for logging events.
Switch operation does not depend on the date and time; a switch with an incorrect date and time value
functions properly. However, because the date and time are used for logging, error detection, and
troubleshooting, you must set them correctly.
In a Virtual Fabric, there can be a maximum of eight logical switches per Backbone. Only the default
switch in the chassis can update the hardware clock. When the date command is issued from a non-
principal pre-Fabric OS v6.2.0 or earlier switch, the date command request is dropped by a Fabric OS
v6.2.0 and later switch and the pre-Fabric OS v6.2.0 switch or earlier does not receive an error.
Authorization access to set or change the date and time for a switch is role-based. For an
understanding of role-based access, refer to Role-Based Access Control on page 134.
Setting the date and time
Use the following procedure to set the device date and time:
1. Connect to the switch and log in using an account assigned to the admin role.
2. Enter the date command, using the following syntax:
date
"mmddHHMMyy"
The values represent the following:
• mm is the month; valid values are 01 through 12.
• dd is the date; valid values are 01 through 31.
• HH is the hour; valid values are 00 through 23.
• MM is minutes; valid values are 00 through 59.
• yy is the year, valid values are 00 through 37 and 70 through 99 (year values from 70 through 99
are interpreted as 1970 through 1999, year values from 00 through 37 are interpreted as 2000
through 2037).
Example of showing and setting the date
switch:admin> date
Fri Sep 29 17:01:48 UTC 2007
Stealth200E:admin> date "0204101008"
Mon Feb 4 10:10:00 UTC 2008
Time zone settings
You can set the time zone for a switch by name. You can specify the setting using country and city or
time zone parameters. Switch operation does not depend on a date and time setting. However, having
an accurate time setting is needed for accurate logging and audit tracking.
If the time zone is not set with new options, the switch retains the offset time zone settings. The
tsTimeZone command includes an option to revert to the prior time zone format. For more information
about the tsTimeZone command, refer to the Fabric OS Command Reference.
When you set the time zone for a switch, you can perform the following tasks:
Date and time settings
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