Kubernetes Timezone in Pods: TZ env, tzdata, /etc/localtime

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 02:30:00 -0500

Kubernetes does not have a timezone setting for pods, namespaces or the cluster. A container gets whatever its image provides, which for almost every base image is UTC, and it does not inherit the node’s timezone. To run a pod in a local timezone, set the TZ environment variable on the container, and make sure the image ships timezone data (/usr/share/zoneinfo). When the image has no timezone data, mount the zone file at /etc/localtime from a ConfigMap. Every method below was tested on Kubernetes 1.34 with the output shown.

Tzdata on Support Tools

Kubernetes Timezone in Pods: TZ env, tzdata, /etc/localtime