Question

Im trying to figure out if my module cron is running at the correct time.

The cron for my module is set at 1am (0 1 * * *), the time zone of the default store is Western Europe (Paris, Berlin etc GMT +2), the server time is EDT (Eastern Daylight Time).

So on which time zone is the 1am schedule based on?

Thanks,

Answer 1

The Magento cron process runs under the UTC timezone.

This can be verified by temporarily adding a small log statement to the cron observer.

The method is:

Mage_Cron_Model_Observer::dispatch()

Look for this code in the first few lines:

$now = time();

Either right before or after, add this:

Mage::log("cron timezone: " . date_default_timezone_get(), Zend_Log::DEBUG);

Then check your var/log/system.log file and you will see that PHP/Magento is using the UTC timezone.