Handling Exceptions Caused by Server Time Desynchronization in Workflow Approvals

In many projects, services are called across different systems, but time synchronization issues can cause unexpected exceptions.

The article presents a case where a workflow approval was incorrectly marked as completed because the email system’s clock was ahead of the work‑order system’s clock. User A approved a ticket via email, causing both approval nodes to be marked as approved.

To resolve such problems, two measures are recommended: (1) during email approval, verify the workflow node ID, check whether the node has already been approved, and confirm that the email recipient is an authorized approver; (2) compare the timestamps of the work‑order system and the email system and use the earlier time as the reference.

For checking server times, the Xshell tool provides a “broadcast” function that can send a command to all open sessions. The steps are:

Open the servers whose time you want to check.

Select “Send key to all sessions”.

Enter the time‑query command (e.g., date ) and press Enter.

Observe the returned timestamps in the console.

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