Major problem with timezones, clocks, Citrix and Thinstation

[localzuk]

I have an issue with the clocks being wrong on all our terminal clients (all running ThinStation or HP's debian linux version).

 

The machines all have their hardware clocks set correctly, and the server has its clock set correctly, yet when users log in, their clock is 1 hour slow. This obviously causes trouble with things such as calendars and time sensitive applications (FMS for example).

 

I have both of the 2 Time Zones options in the Citrix Presentation Server Console set to disabled (ie. do not estimate local time for legacy clients and do not use clients' local time).

 

And in the Group Policy applicable to the terminal servers, the 'Allow Time Zone Redirection' option (under Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Terminal Services -> Client/Server data redirection).

 

I've tried combinations of all of these, to no avail.

 

Any ideas how to solve this annoying issue?

[jamesb]

British Summer Time/Daylight Savings?

[localzuk]

What about it? All times on the servers are correct, and are set according to an NTP server...

[CyberNerd]

in the thinstation.conf.network you can set the NTP server (to that of a DC)

NET_TIME_SERVER=xxx

[jamesb]

I was just wondering, since its an hour out, whether the daylight savings setting was applied somewhere (say on client sessions) and disabled on the server, or vice versa. Not sure if it can actually be done, but it was a thought on somewhere to look.

 

This might be useful - CTX303498 - Troubleshooting Client Time Zone Issues - Citrix Knowledge Center

[localzuk]

in the thinstation.conf.network you can set the NTP server (to that of a DC)

NET_TIME_SERVER=xxx

 

I will have a try with this.

 

I was just wondering, since its an hour out, whether the daylight savings setting was applied somewhere (say on client sessions) and disabled on the server, or vice versa. Not sure if it can actually be done, but it was a thought on somewhere to look.

 

This might be useful - CTX303498 - Troubleshooting Client Time Zone Issues - Citrix Knowledge Center

 

I've ran through that checklist and it comes up that the timezone being used is UTC. Everything else is correct except the timezone.

[localzuk]

Right, figured it out. Thinstation requires me to manually change the config file from TIMEZONE="UTC" to something else. Now, the question is what... I have tried GMT (set's it an hour slow, as expected), I've tried GMT+1 (no change) and GMT-1 (2 hours slow). I've tried BST also, no change.

 

Any more ideas?

[jamesb]

Can you do GMT+2, and if so does it have the correct time, or is it showing as an hour fast?

[localzuk]

Can you do GMT+2, and if so does it have the correct time, or is it showing as an hour fast?

 

GMT+2 results in a 2 hour behind time.

[localzuk]

What I ideally could do with is an example of the citrix settings, GPO settings and thinstation settings in use by other users on here.

[jamesb]

So, just to get this clear...

 

Assuming the actual time is 12:00

 

So the actual server hardware clock shows 12:00

The actual client clock shows 12:00

 

GMT results in it showing 11:00

GMT+1 results in it showing 13:00

GMT-1 results in it showing 10:00

GMT +2 results in it showing 10:00

BST results in it showing 11:00?

 

At this point I recommend the pub.

 

When you're back, the only other stuff I could find was this - Nabble - thinstation-general - Local Time problem

 

There were mentions here and there of timezone problems between ThinClient and Citrix, but all of the pages I tried to check were missing.

 

What's the timezone actually set to on the clients?

[localzuk]

So, just to get this clear...

 

Assuming the actual time is 12:00

 

So the actual server hardware clock shows 12:00

The actual client clock shows 12:00

 

GMT results in it showing 11:00

GMT+1 results in it showing 13:00

GMT-1 results in it showing 10:00

GMT +2 results in it showing 10:00

BST results in it showing 11:00?

 

At this point I recommend the pub.

 

When you're back, the only other stuff I could find was this - Nabble - thinstation-general - Local Time problem

 

Yup, that's the crux of it.

 

There were mentions here and there of timezone problems between ThinClient and Citrix, but all of the pages I tried to check were missing.

 

What's the timezone actually set to on the clients?

 

That's what the thinstation setting discussed above sets. The machines themselves have a hardware clock, but no hardware timezone.

[localzuk]

Woo!!! Got it working! It involved checking the TZ on the thinstation (ssh in and run date) so it was showing the right time and timezone. So then I turned on both the Citrix timezone options in the policy, and disable timezone redirection on the GPO.

 

Works! :)

[secureit]

Hi Zuk, can you describe me what action you have performed to mittigate the TC time problem I have the same problem. TC showing different timing on every TC

[localzuk]

Hi @secureit, I'm afraid I stopped using Thinstation a long time ago now, so can't remember. Sorry.

 

I ended up moving away from Citrix, and ended up building my own custom install of Debian for the job - http://www.edugeek.net/forums/thin-client-virtual-machines/107013-hp-t5735-custom-debian-install-allow-nla-session-broker-work-rds.html

 

We've since moved on from that also, with all our thin clients now simply running Windows 7 with RDS client (as they're all just refurb Core2Duo machines).

Edited December 9, 2016 by localzuk