Why and Where Are Time Zones Used?

Time zones are used throughout Oracle Business Intelligence for a variety of purposes.

A time stamp can indicate when an object was changed, and users can specify a time for an agent to run. Users often are most comfortable working in their local time zones. As the administrator, you can configure the preferred time zones for users for various components.

Before you begin to set preferred time zones, see the next table for information about where time zones are used.

Type	Description
Oracle BI Server	If you have users in time zones that are different from the zone for Presentation Services, then you as the administrator can specify the time stamps that those users see in Oracle Business Intelligence. For example, suppose the server is located in the Pacific time zone in the United States. You can specify that users on the east coast of the United States see time stamps that are displayed in Eastern Standard Time. If you make no time zone settings and if a user does not specify a preferred time zone using the My Account dialog, then that user sees time displayed according to the local time zone for Presentation Services. For information about how users specify their preferred time zones, see User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.
Data from the database	The administrator specifies the time zone for the data that is retrieved from the database. If you make no time zone settings, then users see the time stamp data in the time zone of the original data as set by the administrator.
Content that is displayed in Oracle Business Intelligence	Users who create analyses can specify the time zone that is displayed in their analyses and dashboard prompts. This specification overrides those made by you as the administrator and by end users if they have previously used the column in their queries and have set the time zone. If the specified display time zone supports daylight saving time, then the timestamp values that are displayed are automatically adjusted for daylight saving time.
General time stamps that indicate when events happen	End users can specify the time zone for many general stamps including the following ones: The scheduled time of agents. The generated time of alerts or analyses. The time on which objects in the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog are created, modified, and accessed.
Log files	Log files contain time stamps for various activities.