Inside Automation Engine > Date and Time > Changing the Time

Changing the Time

Time plays an important role in AE because it is used in many places (e.g. start time, duration of tasks or work steps in the processing of tasks). The worldwide unique UTC is always the basis.

Adjusting the time implies severe interference with the processing that takes place in your AE system even if only a few minutes are concerned. Always turn the Automation Engine off when you adjust the time.

Changing from daylight savings time to normal time or vice versa is based on UTC. As opposed to manual time adjustments, it has no negative effects.

Negative Effects

The following problems can occur if the time is adjusted while your AE system is active:

Setting the time back:

Time measurements supply wrong or negative results. These are used in several overviews in the UserInterface and affect subsequent processing.
Actions in the Automation Engine are also affected which is immediately recognizable in the UserInterface. Opening a window takes 2 minutes if the time is set back by 2 minutes.
Event intervals are extended.

Example: An interval of 10 minutes has been specified for an event (start at 10:00 a.m.)
If the clock is now set back from 10:17 a.m. to 10:12 a.m., the interval is extended to 15 minutes.

Setting the time forward:

Actions seem to take longer than is actually the case. This affects the runtime, for example.
Waiting conditions specified for a particular time are directly affected. The script statement :WAIT 60 is immediately completed if the time has been set forward by more than 1 minute.
Event intervals are shortened.

Example: An interval of 10 minutes has been specified for an event (start at 10:00 a.m.)
If the clock is now set forward from 10:15 a.m. to 10:20 a.m., the interval is reduced to 5 minutes.

This was a small extract of possible consequences. Automic strongly recommends deactivating your Automation Engines prior to adjusting the clock time.

If the server processes are distributed among several computers, it is important that all computers have the same time in order to avoid discrepancies. Server processes measure the time offset and counterbalance it, but only in 10-minute intervals. The more exact the synchronization, the fewer the problems that occur during processing.