Purepath Start Time - Which time is it? How is it displayed?
I have a few questions around the Purepath "Start Time" column in the purepaths dashlet.
1. Is this time represent the time the agent started collecting the purepath data? Or is it the time purepath was started on the dynaTrace server?
2. When this is displayed on the dynaTrace client, is it converted to the user's local machine time? for example, if the purepath starts in singapore and I am monitoring transactions here on US (EST). Will the start time displayed on the dashlet be my local time?
The reason I am asking is that some of the users are complaining that the purepath times seem to be 5 to 10 minutes off from the times they ran the transaction which created it.
PJ
Pankaj,
the PurePath start time is the time when the PurePath was started on the agent e.g. when the request hit the servlet. This timestamp is then converted to server time. Meaning that the current time zone of the server is used. The client does not convert the time to the users local timezone.
In your case I would check the time settings on the machine where the dynaTrace server is installed.
// Alois
Alois,
Regarding the display: are you sure? My experience, like you say, is that the timestamp of all this data is derived from the dT server time, but the presentation is in the timezone of the client. So if the dT server in Chicago was "off" by 10 minutes the PP time would be for example 2:17PM instead of the 2:27PM that people expected. But the display on the client in New York would show 3:17PM. Still off by10 minutes but adjusted for timezone.
Rob
Rob,
I just checked again with the latest version of dynaTrace. We format the start time to the timezone of the user. However do not sync the clocks. So as you say the start time is in the correct timezone but the 10 minutes off must be due to the actual time of the dynaTrace server.
Right - that's what I thought I was saying too. Local TZ formatting of whatever time is reported by the dT server. Sorry if the example was bad.
Rob/Alois,
I am only seeing this issue on specific users client machines.
All the purepaths are starting from the client agents installed on the user's machines. The dynaTrace Server & the users machines are all in US (EST). The test we just ran had the following results:
UserA in US(EST) connected to dynaTrace server US(EST) started a purepath @ 8.42AM from his dynaTrace agent on his machine. The dynaTrace client displayed hte start time as 9.12AM. However,. when I open up the dynaTrace client, I see 8.42AM.
Alois mentioned that the client formats the start time to the timezone of hte user. Where is this setting kept? I am wondering if UserA's dynaTrace client timezone setting is messed up.
Thanks,
PJ
One quick thought, because the times you mention are "suspicious". Are you sure in your examples that the times are all AM? Meaning that perhaps one is not AM and one is not PM? I ask because right now it's 8:12 AM in Chicago, but its 7:42 (PM) in India (coincidentally the same 1.5 hours difference you have in your example).
I'm assuming we're getting TZ from the OS locale, but don't know for sure. You can change the TimeZone on your personal computer where the client is running, and the dT times will reflect that. Are you sure that the machine TZ is set to the same thing for you and UserA?
Rob
Just to close the loop. We've resolved the issue. For some reason, the user's timezone setting said US (EST), but when you went into modify it, the selection said "UTC -1200 International Date Line West". We reselected US (EST) and now the times are matching up.
Thanks for your help!
PJ
Awesome PJ - thanks for the update and glad you're all set now.
Rob
Maybe I am misunderstanding this thread, but from the above I understand that what we see in DynaTrace client should be based on the timezone of the DynaTrace server. However our DynaTrace server is in UTC, but yet all the data we see is in local time (PST). I would like to view the data in UTC without changing the timezone of my client computer. Is there a way to do this?
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