Any information about how to change the timezone on a Drobo5N?

Channels DVR Server
#1

Any information about how to change the timezone on a Drobo5N? It uses a stripped down Linux (Drobo OS) that has no files to change from Pacific timezone to anything else.

The problem is not with the recordings and their start/end times. It is with the Channels log entries, all which are 3 hours off of Eastern.

Example:
2018/09/14 19:00:01 [DVR] Recording for job 1536976800-130 from 1070DDC4 ch8.1 into “TV/24-Hour News 8 at 10PM/24-Hour News 8 at 10PM 2013-03-25 2018-09-14-1900.mpg” for 29m58.865835161s

Perhaps there is an adjustment to be made to the Channels logging that would allow for the correct time (Eastern) to be used instead of the Drobo OS default (Pacific).

#2

Try http://www.drobospace.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=1372

#3

I did modify /etc/profile on the Drobo to include:

export TZ=EST5DST

That changed the Drobo system time:

$ date
Sat Sep 15 18:31:39 DST 2018
$

The Channels log file still continues to show in Pacific time:

2018/09/15 15:21:32 [SYS] Shutting down…
2018/09/15 15:21:32 [SYS] Bonjour service stopped.
2018/09/15 15:21:32 [DVR] Recording engine stopped.
2018/09/15 15:21:33 [SYS] Goodbye.
2018/09/15 15:25:31 [SYS] Starting Channels DVR v2018.09.12.2037 (linux-armv7l) in /mnt/DroboFS/Shares/DroboApps/ChannelsDVR/channels-dvr/data
2018/09/15 15:25:32 [HDR] Found 2 devices
2018/09/15 15:25:33 [SYS] Started HTTP Server
2018/09/15 15:25:39 [DVR] Recording engine started in /mnt/DroboFS/Shares/Media/DVR

Any further suggestions?

– Mike

#4

I’ll have a look. If only Channels is affected that’s something we can fix on our end.

#5

I don’t know which flavour of Linux Drobo5N uses, but here’s how it’s normally done on RH and Debian flavours: https://www.thegeekstuff.com/2010/09/change-timezone-in-linux/

#6

Thanks for your input.

The current version of Drobo OS does not have the /usr/share/zoneinfo directory so modifying the /etc/localtime file is not possible. Drobo OS does not have the /etc/timezone file either.

The entry of
export TZ=EST5DST
into the /etc/profile file , followed by a Drobo shutdown/restart did change the system timezone.

The problem is that the Channels log is still showing entries in Pacific time instead of Eastern time.

– Mike

#7

That’s because /etc/profile is used for setting user environment timezones, not the system’s timezone. (It’s generally read upon each user’s login, before the user’s local profile, etc. is read.)

If that thing is based on Linux and isn’t using one of the common mechanisms for timezones, IMO it’s developers should be shot.

Have you tried asking in the Drobo Forums? That’s where I’d go for this kind of question.

#8

I can’t disagree with you, but like I said above, the Drobo5N system time is now correct.

The current problem on my Drobo5N is the Channels log that is using a different time than the system time.

Thanks for your insights.

– Mike

#9

I will fix this on the DVR side. Thanks for reporting.

#10

I ran across this in the Drobo Forums.

Seems like each app running on the Drobo needs to have their own environmental variable set. My logging into the Drobo via SSH and setting the “export TZ=EST5DST” variable only affected me and not the Channels app.

Thanks for your help.

– Mike

#11

Further information from Drobo Support (finally) about adjusting the timezone in the Drobo5N:

Hello Sir,

We sent out a message on how the Time Zone is generated. You cannot just go into the Drobo and switch the time zones. Since we use NTP you will have to go through the instructions previously sent to determine if all ISP's are accepting that. if they are not, you can use another program called DropBear, but eventually NTP could override that again.

Kind Regards,

Nick D

Manager, Drobo Support Team

So it seems like Drobo has stripped out the ability (from Drobo Linux) of altering the system's timezone on a running Drobo5N.

That lack of flexibility (and the resulting confusing times on logging entries for events by Channels DVR relative to my actual local time) led me to move the Channels DVR over to a Synology DS918+ unit.

The Channels DVR log files for program & event times all show my local time correctly. I can now also transcode for remote viewing (capability is lacking on Drobo5N) and have program commercial detection complete 6 times faster than the Drobo5N (less than 12 minutes versus over 71 minutes for a one hour program).

Drobo5N is fast enough for computer backups, but the Synology DS918+ zips through Channels DVR viewing with Channels clients both locally and remotely.

Thanks again for your help.

-- Mike

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