MySQL Timezone Resets after exiting server
Abstract taken from another Stack Overflow Answer - Adjusting for the
  default time-zone setting on RDS


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

$ rds-describe-db-parameters default | grep "time_zone"
DBPARAMETER  default_time_zone                                                                   engine-default  string   static   false


To set the global value via SET GLOBAL you need to have the SUPER privilege which is not granted to you as a RDS user.

The only way to set the time_zone is on a per-connection basis

mysql&gt; SET time_zone = timezone;


On my machines I've tried US/Eastern successfully but I got a quite old generation running.

To determine the timezones you have available log into your box

mysql -h yourboxhost.rds.amazonaws.com -u &lt;youruser&gt; -p


and type

mysql&gt; SELECT * FROM mysql.time_zone_name;


You should get a list of installed and valid timezone names you can set on your instance

+----------------------------------------+--------------+
| Name                                   | Time_zone_id |
+----------------------------------------+--------------+
| Africa/Abidjan                         |            1 |
| Africa/Accra                           |            2 |
| Africa/Addis_Ababa                     |            3 |
| Africa/Algiers                         |            4 |
| Africa/Asmara                          |            5 |
| Africa/Asmera                          |            6 |
| Africa/Bamako                          |            7 |
| Africa/Bangui                          |            8 |
| Africa/Banjul                          |            9 |
| Africa/Bissau                          |           10 |
| Africa/Blantyre                        |           11 |
| Africa/Brazzaville                     |           12 |
| Africa/Bujumbura                       |           13 |
| Africa/Cairo                           |           14 |
etc...


You have to set the time_zone each time you connect to your database server

For example if you use the php Mysqli extension you can do this

$mysqli = mysqli_init();
mysqli_options($mysqli,MYSQLI_INIT_COMMAND,"SET time_zone = 'Africa/Brazzaville'" );
mysqli_real_connect($mysqli,$host, $user, $pass,$dbName) or die ('Unable to connect');


Otherwise just manually ( in terms of let your database connector do it ) execute the SET time_zone = '&lt;YOUR_DESIRED_TIMEZONE&gt;' Query right after you've connected to your database