I set the online database maintenance schedule for my Exchange Server systems to a particular time, but only the servers in the same time zone as my management workstations are honoring the schedule. Why is this?
Every server can have its own online maintenance schedule. Typically, maintenance runs at about 1:00 a.m. local time, when most users are fast asleep rather than emailing people. A somewhat hidden time-zone dependency exists in this scheduling process: The schedule follows the time zone of whichever machine you use to set the schedule. So let's say that you're in New York and want to set the online maintenance interval for a remote Exchange server in Sydney. If you use Exchange System Manager (ESM) to connect to the Australian server, then set online maintenance to run at 2:00 a.m., guess what? The task is going to run at 2:00 a.m. Eastern time, which is 4:00 p.m. local time in Sydney—not exactly the time you intended. The workaround is to use Windows Terminal Services to log on to your remote Exchange servers and set the schedules directly on those machines.