Timestamps Displayed in the Different Components of ION Enterprise and ION Devices
Issue:
Timestamps displayed in different components ofION Enterprise and ION devices may appear inconsistent, which can cause confusion for users reviewing real‑time and historical data.
Product Line:
ION Enterprise
ION meters
Environment:
Vista
WebReach
Reporter
ION devices (front panel)
Cause:
All timestamps are stored in the ION Enterprise database in UTC format.
However, different components apply different time‑zone rules when displaying real‑time and historical data. These differences depend on whether the data is real‑time or historical, and on the time‑zone settings of the client PC, server, or meter.
Resolution:
Understanding how each component displays timestamps helps explain the observed differences.
Vista
- Real‑time data: Displayed using the meter time, converted to local time based on the client PC’s time‑zone settings.
- Historical data: Displayed using timestamps calculated from UTC, adjusted according to the server operating system’s time‑zone settings, assuming “Show Logs in Universal Time (UTC)” is unchecked.
Reporter
- Reporter behaves similarly to Vista.
- UTC timestamps from the database are adjusted using the local PC’s time‑zone settings to display the Local Time column in reports.
WebReach
- Real‑time data: Displayed using the meter’s local time, based on the time‑zone configured in the meter.
- Historical data: Displayed using timestamps calculated from UTC, adjusted according to the server operating system’s time‑zone settings.
ION Device Front Panel
- The meter displays local time based on the time‑zone settings configured in the meter’s Clock module.
Summary
- All data is stored in UTC in the database.
- Real‑time displays typically reflect meter time or client PC time.
- Historical data displays typically reflect server time‑zone settings unless explicitly configured to show UTC.
- Differences in display are expected behavior and are determined by where the time‑zone conversion is applied.