just stumbled across some configuration stuff in one of my linux-servers and I thought this would be a good time to take some notes … I wanted to check that the time is correct on my linux server (running Debian), so here are some simple steps to verify that.

First off your hardware-clock should run on UTC/GMT. To verify that the clock is synced to UTC on shutdown verify /etc/default/rcS, which should have setting like UTC=yes. Then use tzconfig to manipulate the symlink at /etc/localtime to match your current timezone.

Finally you should set the clock using ntp:

ntpdate time.fu-berlin.de
hwclock --utc --adjust
hwclock --systohc