Setting the server time zone and NTP for VICIdial

VICIdial reads the server clock for almost everything you care about. Call-time windows that stop the dialer outside legal hours. Report timestamps. Lead recycling timers. Recording filenames. If the operating-system clock drifts or sits in the wrong zone, every one of those numbers is wrong, and you find out in an audit. Set the time zone and a sane time source on day one.

Three clocks have to agree

There are three clock settings, and they are not the same thing. First, the Linux OS time zone, set with timedatectl. Second, NTP, the Network Time Protocol that keeps the OS clock from drifting against real wall time. Third, the VICIdial GMT offset, a System Settings field the application uses to decide when Call times allow dialing. Get all three pointing at the same reality.

A common mistake is leaving the box on UTC, syncing NTP perfectly, and then forgetting that agents and leads live in a local zone. The clock is correct; the dialing window is off by hours. So the order matters. The OS zone and NTP first, then the application offset.

Set the OS zone and sync NTP

On Ubuntu, list zones with timedatectl list-timezones, set yours with timedatectl set-timezone America/New_York, and confirm with timedatectl status. Enable network time with timedatectl set-ntp true, or run chrony if you want tighter control and a named upstream pool. Either way, watch the offset converge to near zero before you trust it.

flowchart TD
  A[NTP pool servers] -->|sync drift| B[OS clock chrony]
  B --> C[Linux time zone]
  C --> D[VICIdial GMT offset]
  D --> E[Call-time enforcement]
  D --> F[Report timestamps]
  D --> G[Recording filenames]

Why bother with NTP when the box was right at install? Clocks drift. A few seconds a day adds up, and a dialer that thinks it is 9:01 PM when the law says 9:00 PM is a problem. NTP corrects that drift continuously so you never have to think about it again.

Match the application offset

Inside the admin under Admin then System Settings, the local GMT offset must match the OS zone you just set. VICIdial also keeps a server-level GMT field per box. On a single-server build, the GMT offset (lead) is one value to keep straight; on multi-box layouts you set it per server. Because the product is Single tenant with one customer per VPS, there is exactly one clock to reason about. That keeps this honest.

After you change the offset, restart the dialer processes so the change is read. The cron-driven Keepalive scripts pick up the new clock on their next cycle, and the agent Timeclock starts logging against the corrected time.

Verify before you dial a lead

Run a quick check. Place a test lead, watch a Real-time report timestamp, and confirm it reads local wall time, not UTC. Then confirm the call-time set for the campaign blocks dialing outside the window you expect. If both look right, the three clocks agree. The post-install checklist folds this into the broader bring-up, and the full installation guide covers where time-zone setup sits in the install order.

We do this for you on every box. When we provision a server in under 40 seconds, the OS zone, NTP, and the VICIdial offset are already set and synced before you log in, so call-time enforcement is correct from the first lead. You keep root SSH to change the zone whenever your campaigns move. See plans and pricing.