k8s-timezone-config

Kubernetes Pod Timezone Configuration

Standard timezone for your organization infrastructure: America/Sao_Paulo

Problem

Kubernetes pods run in UTC by default. Logs and application timestamps show +0000 offset instead of local Brazil time (-0300).

Solution

Add the TZ environment variable to container specifications.

Implementation Patterns

1. Helm Values (extraEnv pattern)

For Helm charts that support extraEnv:

# In values.yaml
extraEnv:
  - name: TZ
    value: America/Sao_Paulo

2. Multiple Containers

When a deployment has multiple containers (e.g., API server + frontend), add TZ to ALL containers:

apiServer:
  extraEnv:
    - name: TZ
      value: America/Sao_Paulo

frontend:
  extraEnv:
    - name: TZ
      value: America/Sao_Paulo

3. Raw Kubernetes Deployment

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
spec:
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: app
          env:
            - name: TZ
              value: America/Sao_Paulo

4. StatefulSet

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: StatefulSet
spec:
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: app
          env:
            - name: TZ
              value: America/Sao_Paulo

Verification

After deployment, verify timezone is set correctly:

# Check pod logs for timestamp offset
# Before: 2026-01-13T11:37:06 +0000
# After:  2026-01-13T08:37:06 -0300

# Or exec into pod
kubectl exec -it <pod-name> -n <namespace> -- date
# Should show: Mon Jan 13 08:37:06 -03 2026

Common Applications Requiring Timezone

Application	Config Location	Notes
Dependency-Track	apiServer.extraEnv + frontend.extraEnv	Both containers need TZ
Grafana	env or extraEnvVars	Single container
Loki	extraEnv	Affects log timestamps
Prometheus	server.env	Affects alert timestamps
DefectDojo	extraEnv	Django app
PostgreSQL	primary.extraEnvVars	Database timestamps

Important Notes

1. Restart required: Pods must restart for TZ changes to take effect
2. All containers: Set TZ on ALL containers in a pod, including sidecars
3. Init containers: Also set TZ on init containers if they log timestamps
4. Cron jobs: Kubernetes CronJob schedules are always UTC - TZ only affects container-level time

your organization GitOps Workflow

1. Edit values.yaml in argo-cd-helm-values/kube-addons/<service>/<cluster>/values.yaml
2. Add TZ environment variable to all containers
3. Commit and push (ArgoCD auto-syncs)
4. Verify pods restart with new timezone

Reference

• IANA Timezone Database: America/Sao_Paulo = UTC-3 (no DST since 2019)
• Linux TZ variable: Uses /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Sao_Paulo

---

Gotchas

• TZ env var only affects app-level timestamps, not kubectl logs timestamps (those come from the container runtime, which stays UTC). The kubelet timestamps stay +0000 even after the pod's internal clock is São Paulo.
• CronJob schedule: is always UTC regardless of pod TZ. A 0 8 * * * schedule fires at 05:00 BRT, not 08:00 BRT. Use spec.timeZone: America/Sao_Paulo on the CronJob itself (K8s 1.27+) or compute the UTC offset manually.
• Distroless and scratch images have no /usr/share/zoneinfo — TZ=America/Sao_Paulo silently falls back to UTC. Either use a base image that ships tzdata or mount it via configMap/volume.
• Init containers don't inherit TZ from the main container in older charts — set it on the init container spec separately or their migration logs stay UTC.
• Java apps need -Duser.timezone=America/Sao_Paulo in JAVA_OPTS in addition to TZ — the JVM reads its own property, not the env var, on some distributions.
• PostgreSQL TZ env var sets the OS clock, not the database timezone setting. Server timestamps via now() still use the value in postgresql.conf — set both.