Configuring the time zone

Note

Running the API server with a non-UTC time zone requires Dependency-Track 5.0.1 or newer. Version 5.0.0 implicitly assumes UTC and misbehaves under any other zone.

Dependency-Track does all internal date and time work in UTC, and the official container images set TZ=Etc/UTC to match. TZ is the standard POSIX environment variable for the system time zone. Setting it to a non-UTC value only changes how log timestamps render in the API server's stdout and stderr. Stored data, dashboards, policies, and REST responses stay UTC.

Tip

Run the API server in UTC where you can. Log lines, partition names, and dashboard buckets correlate more easily when they share a single zone.

Setting TZ

Set TZ as an environment variable on the API server container:

services:
  apiserver:
    image: dependencytrack/apiserver
    environment:
      TZ: "Europe/Paris"

Use any IANA time zone identifier. The container image ships with tzdata, so all identifiers resolve.

Database session time zone

The API server's PostgreSQL sessions inherit TZ. This does not affect stored data. Writes go in as absolute instants, and partition maintenance and materialised view refreshes pin the session to UTC for their transactions.

Warning

When connecting to the database directly, match your session zone to the API server's TZ. PostgreSQL renders timestamptz in the session zone, interprets unqualified date and timestamp literals in it, and casts comparisons through it. A mismatch makes the same row appear to shift by hours when reading, and silently inserts the wrong instant when writing. Issue SET TimeZone TO '<zone>' before running ad-hoc updates.