Description of problem:

We have a client who's starting a migration to RHEL7 and was noticing that their previously valid kickstart timezone specification "Japan", which worked in RHEL6, is getting rejected in RHEL7 and thus they're defaulting to "Americas/New_York".

Having a quick look:

RHEL6:

<snip>
class Timezone(commands.timezone.FC6_Timezone):
    def execute(self, anaconda):
        # check validity
        tab = zonetab.ZoneTab()
        if self.timezone not in (entry.tz.replace(' ','_') for entry in
                                 tab.getEntries()):
            log.warning("Timezone %s set in kickstart is not valid." % (self.timezone,))
</snip>

RHEL7 outsources this:

<snip>
    def execute(self, *args):
        # write out timezone configuration
        if not timezone.is_valid_timezone(self.timezone):
            # this should never happen, but for pity's sake
            log.warning("Timezone %s set in kickstart is not valid, falling "\
                        "back to default (America/New_York).", self.timezone)
            self.timezone = "America/New_York"
<snip>

def is_valid_timezone(timezone):
    """
    Check if a given string is an existing timezone.

    :type timezone: str
    :rtype: bool

    """

    etc_zones = ["Etc/" + zone for zone in ETC_ZONES]

    return timezone in pytz.common_timezones + etc_zones
<snip>
# The following zones are not in pytz.common_timezones and
# Etc category in pytz.all_timezones includes some more,
# however confusing ones (like UCT, GMT+0, GMT-0,...)
ETC_ZONES = ['GMT+1', 'GMT+2', 'GMT+3', 'GMT+4', 'GMT+5', 'GMT+6', 'GMT+7',
             'GMT+8', 'GMT+9', 'GMT+10', 'GMT+11', 'GMT+12',
             'GMT-1', 'GMT-2', 'GMT-3', 'GMT-4', 'GMT-5', 'GMT-6', 'GMT-7',
             'GMT-8', 'GMT-9', 'GMT-10', 'GMT-11', 'GMT-12', 'GMT-13',
             'GMT-14', 'UTC', 'GMT']
<snip>

So, we're using pytz "common_timezones" to assess validity. Having a look at that, we have:

"common_timezones is a list of useful, current timezones. It doesn’t contain deprecated zones or historical zones, except for a few I’ve deemed in common usage, such as US/Eastern (open a bug report if you think other timezones are deserving of being included here). It is also a sequence of strings."

To get the "deprecated" or "historical" zones, we want all_timezones for this:

<snip>
>>> for tz in pytz.common_timezones:
...     if tz == "Japan":
...             print tz
... 
>>> for tz in pytz.all_timezones:
...     if tz == "Japan":
...             print tz
... 
Japan
>>> 
</snip>

Having a look at the corresponding set function in anaconda:
<snip>
def write_timezone_config(timezone, root):
    """
    Write timezone configuration for the system specified by root.

    :param timezone: ksdata.timezone object
    :param root: path to the root
    :raise: TimezoneConfigError

    """

    # we want to create a relative symlink
    tz_file = "/usr/share/zoneinfo/" + timezone.timezone
    rooted_tz_file = os.path.normpath(root + tz_file)
    relative_path = os.path.normpath("../" + tz_file)
    link_path = os.path.normpath(root + "/etc/localtime")

    if not os.access(rooted_tz_file, os.R_OK):
        log.error("Timezone to be linked (%s) doesn't exist", rooted_tz_file)
</snip>

[root@testhost ~]# ls -1 /usr/share/zoneinfo/ | grep Japan
Japan
</snip>

So, as an eyeball sanity check, it looks like this'd work if we relax the filter a bit.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
RHEL7 anaconda

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. in kickstart specify "timezone Japan"


Actual results:
The set timezone on the system is the default "Americas/New_York"

Expected results:

The timezone is set to Japan.
Additional info: