windows 2003 Time/TimeZone problem

Ghasem Shams 1 Reputation point
2021-09-20T11:48:45.773+00:00

hello
In my environment, there are thousands of clients and servers. suddenly all windows server 2003 systems time get back 1 hour. all other systems are ok.

  • there are 3 time-related policies, 1st for DCs to get time from NTP, 2nd for clients and servers to get time from DCs, and the 3rd one for time zone configuration through registry.
  • there is no related error in the event viewer.
  • registry keys are in 3rd policy in preferences and on 2003 servers CSE is installed and get the updates without any problem (I checked: I deleted one of the registry keys and after gpupdate it appeared)
  • in the below pictures you can see "w32tm /tz" command shows correct information on windows 10 but in 2003 systems DoW is showing 4 instead of 2. which means it will happen on Thursday instead of Tuesday. right?
  • I have installed tzedit.exe on 2003 servers and it shows the correct time zone and correct date for time shift. I even tried to replace the reg key from TZI reg_binary to dynamic DST value (after tzedit configuration) but no luck.

133602-win-10.jpg

133538-2003.jpg

now the questions:

  • when every registry configurations are the same, and all systems are getting the config from the same GPP, why 2003 shows different information?
  • in 2003 systems DoW is 2 days after other systems. why the time shift happened 4 days before 21st September? it should happen on Thursday instead of the correct date (Tuesday 21st September)
Windows Server
Windows Server
A family of Microsoft server operating systems that support enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.
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  1. Limitless Technology 39,396 Reputation points
    2021-09-21T07:40:38.273+00:00

    Hello Ghasem,

    When the time zone is set to (GMT+02:00) Cairo in Microsoft Windows Server 2003, in Microsoft Windows XP, or in Microsoft Windows 2000, daylight saving time may start or end on an incorrect date and at an incorrect time.

    For example, a computer's clock may change to daylight saving time on the first Friday of May at 02:00, and it may change from daylight saving time on the last Wednesday of September at 02:00.

    However, in Egypt, daylight saving time starts on the last Friday in April at midnight (00:00:00) and ends on the last Friday in September at midnight (00:00:00).

    This problem occurs because the information in the registry for this time zone is incorrect. The reference data is stored in the following subkey:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Time Zones\Egypt Standard TimeThe currently in-use information is stored in the following subkey:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformationThe time zone information in both of these locations is in binary format. We do not recommend that you resolve this problem by modifying the registry.

    If the problem persists do-follow the steps mentioned in the below link,

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/windows-starts-and-ends-daylight-saving-time-incorrectly-if-the-time-zone-is-set-to-gmt-02-00-cairo-b6887b86-f1b1-7e96-9cf2-268dd12ba464

    Hope this answers all your queries, if not please do repost back.
    If an Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it : )