Time zones affect license start and expiry times, entitlement validity, and customer integrations. Incorrect configuration can lead to early expiry or activation failures for customers in different regions. This article explains the different time zones used in FlexNet Operations Cloud and FlexNet Embedded.

FlexNet Operations

FlexNet Operations Cloud is hosted in our AWS environments, and by default, they follow the UTC time zone, which cannot be changed. 

FlexNet Operations SOAP API

FlexNet Operations exposes a set of SOAP-based web services that allow external systems to interact with the licensing back office. The FlexNet Operations SOAP calls also use UTC time zone.

FlexNet Embedded

FlexNet Embedded uses time zones for local license servers (FlexNet Embedded license servers that are hosted in the customer environment) and Cloud license servers (which are hosted in our AWS environments). 

Local License Server

The local license server can either use its default time zone or Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) for determining a feature’s expiry date and start date. You configure the time zone using the licensing.defaultTimeZone setting.

Valid values:

• UTC— If UTC is set, a feature’s start date is the start of the specified day in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
  Equally, a feature will expire at the end of the day of the configured expiry date in UTC time. This is the
  default value.
• SERVER—If SERVER is set, a feature’s start date is the start of the specified day in the server’s default time
  zone. Equally, a feature will expire at the end of the day of the configured expiry date in the server's default
  time zone.

By default, licensing.defaultTimeZone is set to UTC. However, if you set licensing.defaultTimeZone to SERVER, the local license server uses the time zone of the machine on which it is installed.

The local license server time zone can be modified in two ways:

• Using producer-settings.xml—While generating the producer-settings.xml, include the configuration licensing.defaultTimeZone=SERVER in your properties text file. 
• Using the Configuration API—Using the /configuration API, you can modify the licensing.defaultTimeZone setting and set the default time zone for the local license server:
• • http://localhost:7070/api/1.0/configuration
  • licensing.defaultTimeZone = UTC or SERVER 

Cloud Licensing Server

A Cloud Licensing Server (CLS) instance can use either Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) or the server's time zone, which is PST. The time zone of the CLS instance can be changed using the /configuration API.

To change the default time zone for a CLS instance, call the /configuration API to modify the licensing.defaultTimeZone setting:

• https://flex[tenantid].compliance.flexnetoperations.com/api/1.0/instances/[INSTANCE ID]/configuration
• licensing.defaultTimeZone = UTC or SERVER