Migrate system dates from local server time to UTC

[AndyButland]

Prerequisites

• I have added steps to test this contribution in the description below

Description

This is the second part of the effort to make Umbraco's handling of system dates more consistent by using UTC throughout.

#19705 makes changes such that we persist and expose UTC dates. This PR is a migration to update all the existing system dates stored in local server time to UTC.

The migration will run automatically and will detect the server time. If for some reason there's a need to disable the migration, or to override the detection of the local server time, this can be done in configuration:

To disable:

  "SystemDateMigration": {
    "Enabled": false
  }

To use a specific timezone for the local server:

  "SystemDateMigration": {
    "LocalServerTimeZone": "Eastern Standard Time"
  }

Testing

To test, run Umbraco and verify the migration completes via the log messages. Examine the database before and after to check the datetime values.

Verify the configuration values act as expected.

In my own testing I've run this locally where I'm on W. Europe Standard Time.

I've verified with SQL Server using the following queries:

select createDate from umbracoNode where id = 4258
-- Before: 2025-03-10 08:37:01.830
-- After: 2025-03-10 07:37:01.830

select eventDateUtc from umbracoAudit where id = 1
-- Before: 2024-12-20 11:21:51.167
-- After: 2024-12-20 10:21:51.167

select registeredDate from umbracoServer where id = 1003
-- Before: 2025-01-08 11:49:10.123
-- After: 2025-01-08 10:49:10.123

select lastLoginDate from umbracoUser where id = -1
-- Before: 2025-07-10 11:49:01.873
-- After: 2025-07-10 09:49:01.873

Note that the first three go back one hour, and the last one two hours - this as the latter is during summer time when the offset from UTC is two hours rather than one. So with SQL Server we can handle daylight saving time in the conversions.

And with SQLite using:

select id, createDate from umbracoNode where id = 1056
-- Before: 2025-02-05 07:08:53.8950557
-- After: 2025-02-05 06:08:53

select eventDateUtc from umbracoAudit where id = 1
-- Before: 2025-05-05 05:06:51.0795237
-- After: 2025-05-05 04:06:51

select registeredDate from umbracoServer where id = 1
-- Before: 2025-05-05 07:07:48.8035498
-- After: 2025-05-05 06:07:48

select lastLoginDate from umbracoUser where id = -1
-- Before: 2025-07-23 08:08:05.2174383
-- After: 2025-07-23 07:08:05

Note here for all we just go back one hour. As per the comment in the code, we don't have the same features available in the database to handle daylight saving, but this is acceptable given it's likely non-production and these are historical dates where 100% accuracy is unlikely to be necessary.

And then with "Eastern Standard Time" configured as my local server time zone:

select eventDateUtc from umbracoAudit where id = 1
-- Before: 2025-05-05 05:06:51.0795237
-- After: 2025-05-05 10:06:51

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This PR implements a migration to convert existing system dates from local server time to UTC as part of Umbraco's effort to make date handling more consistent. The migration automatically detects the server timezone and updates all relevant datetime columns across multiple tables in the database.

Key changes:

• Adds a new migration MigrateSystemDatesToUtc that converts dates in 27 database columns from local time to UTC
• Introduces configuration options to disable the migration or override timezone detection
• Includes validation for configuration settings to ensure valid timezone names

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 7 out of 7 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
MigrateSystemDatesToUtc.cs	Core migration class that handles timezone detection and updates datetime columns across all relevant tables
SystemDateMigrationSettings.cs	Configuration model defining migration settings with timezone and enabled properties
SystemDateMigrationSettingsValidator.cs	Validator ensuring configured timezone names are valid system timezones
UmbracoPlan.cs	Registers the new migration in the upgrade plan
UmbracoBuilder.Configuration.cs	Adds configuration registration for the new settings
Constants-Configuration.cs	Defines configuration key constant for the new settings
SystemDateMigrationSettingsValidatorTests.cs	Unit tests covering validation scenarios for the configuration settings

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (2)

src/Umbraco.Infrastructure/Migrations/Upgrade/V_17_0_0/MigrateSystemDatesToUtc.cs:102

• Missing opening brace for the method. The method declaration should be followed by an opening brace.

    private static TimeSpan GetTimezoneOffset(string timeZoneName)

src/Umbraco.Infrastructure/Migrations/Upgrade/V_17_0_0/MigrateSystemDatesToUtc.cs:107

• Parameter name 'columName' appears to be a typo. It should be 'columnName' for consistency and clarity.

    private void MigrateDateColumn(IScope scope, string tableName, string columName, string timezoneName, TimeSpan timeZoneOffset)