Set Timezone of Oracle Server

We will have a database with clients scattered across US timezones. Much of the time based data in the database will be stored in GMT timezone. We need to timestamp various transactions from the clients using SYSDATE which also need to be in GMT for correllation. How can we get the timezone of the Solaris 8.0.5 server set to GMT?

When I test with a SQL*NET (not Net8) client with its TZ environment variable set to GMT, the database, on an Eastern Standard Time (EST) machine, stores the value of SYSDATE as EST. However, if on the same EST server, I set the client's TZ to GMT and use SQLPLUS, the SYSDATE is stored as GMT.

How can I reboot the Solaris Oracle 8.0.5 instance only with the TZ=GMT? I added TZ=GMT to the /etc/rc.d script, but it had no effect. I hesitate to use the Unix date command to change the time and timezone of the entire server because that will mess with non-Oracle apps and other independent Oracle instances.

I have studied as much of the Oracle doc's as I could stand and only found a weak time conversion SQL function. Oracle seems timezone illiterate. Surely there must be a standard solution to this problem. Received on Fri Dec 03 1999 - 19:02:06 CST